FUNDAMENTAL 
PRINCIPLES 



SOULE 

AND 

TURPI N 




B.P.JOHNSON PUBLISHING COMPANY 




Class ^:aii 

Book. ^^5" 

GopyiightN" 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSnv 




Woods in Spkinq 
Dogwood in Blossom 



AGRICULTURE 

ITS FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 



BY 

ANDREW M. SOULE 

PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 
AND MECHANIC ARTS 

AND 

EDNA HENRY LEE TURPIN 



"At the head of all the sciences and arts, at the head of civilization 
and progress, stands — not militarism, the science that kills, not ct)m- 
merce, the art that accumulates wealth — but agriculture, the mijther 
of all industry, and the niaintainer of human life." — GARFIELD 



B. F. JOHNSON PUBLISHING COMPANY 

ATLANTA RICHMOND DALLAS 



X 






LIBRARY Of CONGfiESS! 
Two Copies Received j 

JAN 8 1908 

Oopynerii tntry 

0LA8S A XXc. ?*o, 

j . Jpoj*Y- ^■....■„ 



Copyright, 1907, 
By B. F. JOHNSON PUBLISHING CO. 



A/i r{qhts reserved. 



PREFACE 

A FEW years ago the study of agriculture was introduced into common schools as 
an experiment; now, in most states it is on the" list of required studies — a place to 
which its importance \^'ell entitles it. The subject i^ as interesting and as teachable 
as it is important, dealing in a practical way with the elementary principles of many 
sciences. 

The purpose of teaching agriculture is not to make a farmer of each child, any 
more than the purpose of teaching literature is to make an author of each one. The 
study is, however, especially useful to children who will some day be men and women 
with good farms to maintain or poor ones to improve. The knowledge of the forces 
and laws which control plant and animal development raises the daily round of farm 
tasks from drudgery to intelligent labor. As labor is better informed, it is better 
directed; it brings larger returns in dollars and in happiness. 

The aim of this book is so to state the scientific facts and principles which under- 
lie the processes of agriculture that they will be intelligible and interesting to young 
people. These principles are stated briefly but clearly; illustrations and examples 
are drawn from common crops and methods. The constant effort is to bring the stu- 
dent in contact with nature, to have him observe for himself how plants live and 
develop under various conditions, to learn by these observations and by simple ex- 
periments the relation of the soil and its elemente to crop growing, and to understand 
how the processes of nature may be influenced and aided by man. By means of the 
experiments described and suggested, every student can use to advantage the great 
laboratory of nature. 

It is believed that the full experiments and exercises on every topic, the orderly 
arrangement of subjects, the clear chapter outlines, and the full index make this book 
especially valuable for class-room use. The appendix supplies useful tables and sug- 
gestions for supplementary study of special subjects. No pains has been spared to 
make the illustrations really illustrate the text, and thus add to the value as well as to 
tlie attractiveness of the book. 

The authors and publishers desire to make acknowledgment to the Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., for the use of numerous illustrations belonging to it. 
For photographs, information, and other assistance, thanks are due to Professor 
\V. B. Alwood, Miss S. B. Sipe, to many persons connected with the Department of 
Agriculture, and to the directors of various State AgricvUural Experiment Stations, 

3 



SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS 

1. Discuss with pupils the topic assigned for study in the text-book, so as to 
excite their interest. 

2. Collect beforehand materials needed for experiments to illustrate each topic. 

3. Ask pupils to perform experiments and bring specimens to illustrate the sub- 
ject under discussion. 

4. Encourage pupils to observe good and bad methods of farming; make with 
them excursions to observe special crops and methods. 

5. Have a school garden and make use of it for experiment and illustration. 
Each child should work in the garden, and if possible each one should have a plot 
for the care of which he is responsible. 

6. Write to your State Agricultural Experiment Station for information and 
bulletins, and to the Department of Agriculture for bulletins and seeds. 

7. In addition to the text-book, each pupil should have a notebook, in which 
he keeps a neat pen-and-ink record of experiments, of work in school garden, and 
of supplementary work and reading. 

8. Each pupil should have also a drawing book, a hard pencil, a soft pencil, and 
an eraser. He should illustrate each topic as fully as possible with copies from pic- 
tures and with drawings from objects. This exercise teaches habits of careful and 
accurate observation. 

9. For work in the garden, each child needs a light hoe and a ten- or twelve- 
tooth rake, and a string with which to lay off straight rows. 

10. In performing experiments to illustrate the text, the teacher will iind the follow- 
ing articles useful: an-alcohol lamp, three straight lamp chimneys, three small glass 
tubes of different sizes, a set of iron soil sieves, two grain sieves, a dozen six-inch flower 
pots with saucers, three thermometers, an eight-ounce graduated glass, blue litmus 
paper, a dozen heavy glass tumblers, a dozen large-mouth bottles, seeds and cuttings 
of common plants, a collection of crop plants and weeds and insects, and the few 
chemicals mentioned in the text. If these articles are unavailable, the teacher need 
not be discouraged. Common seeds and plants, some bottles, wooden and pasteboard 
boxes, and old tin cans furnish material for interesting experiments. 



CONTENTS 

/ PACK 

Outline of Chai-ter One 7 

CuAiTEK One. — The Son, 

FormatiDii uf the Soil ........... 9 

P'arm Soils. . . . . . . . . . . . .16 

Soil Moisture 22 

Soil Ventilation ............ 27 

Soil Temperature ........... 28 

Composition of the Soil .......... 29 

Outline of Chapter Two ^;i 

CiiAiTER Two. — The Plant 

From Seed to Seed ........... 35 

Differences in the Parts of Plants ........ 46 

Plant Food 54 

Plant Reproduction from P>uds ......... 58 

Transplantinji; ............ 62 

Plant Reproduction from Seeds . . . . . ■ . . . .65 

Plant Ini[)rovemjnt . . . . . . . . . . -73 

Outline of Chaiter Three 77 

Chapter Three. — Sou, Improvement 

General . . . . . . ■ . . . . . . .81 

Drainage ............. 86 

Irrigation ............. 90 

Tillage 93 

Crop Rotation ............ loo 

Green Manures; Legumes and Soil Inoculation ..... 108 

Stable Manure ............ 112 

Commercial Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . .115 

Outline ok Chapter Four 123 

Chapter Four. — Field, Orchard, and Garden Crops 

Crop Raising . . . . . . . . . . . -127 

Forage Crops . . . . . . . . . . . • '33 

Corn, Wheat, and Other Cereals ........ 140 

Cotton, and Other Fiber Plants . ■ 153 

5 



6 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Tobacco . . . . . ■ . . , . . . . .160 

Sugar-producing Plants . . . . , . . . . .164 

The Orchard and iis Care . . . ". . . . . . .166 

The Vegetable Garden . . . . . . . . . .176 

The Flower Garden . . . . . . . . . . .184 

Outline of Chapter Five 189 

Chapter Five. — Crop Enemies and Friends 

Weeds ............. 191 

Fungous Diseases . . . . . . . . . . .198 

Insect Enemies ............ 208 

Insect Friends ............ 221 

Birds .............. 224 

Outline of Chapter Six 231 

Chapter Six. — Domestic Animals 

Stock Raising ............ 235 

Cattle 245 

Horses ............. 254 

Sheep 258 

Goats ............. 262 

Hogs .............. 264 

Poultry . 268 

Bees .............. 274 

Outline of Chapter Seven 277 

Chapter Seven. — Miscellaneous 

Trees .............. 279 

Farm Tools ............ 287 

Good Roads ............. 293 

The Help of Science ........... 29S 

School Gardens ............ 301 

Appendix 

Mixing Fertilizers ........... 305 

Formulas for Spraying Preparations ........ 306 

Average Digestible Nutrients in American Feeding Stuffs .... 309 

Feeding Standards ........... 309 

List of Farmers' Bulletins . . . . . . . . . .310 

State Agricultural Experiment Stations . . . . . . .312 

Index , 313 



OUTLINE OF CHAPTER ONE 

THE SOIL 

Uses of Soil: 

Root-hold and home for plant 
Storehouse for water, air, heat, and plant food 
Soil Makers: 
Heat and cold 
Atmosphere 
Water : 

Vapor, rain, dew, frost, snow, and ice 
Living forms : 

Bacteria, fungi, mosses, higher plants 
Earthworms, ants, higher animals 
Classes of Soil: 

Sedentary, or in place 
Transported, or carried: 
By wind 
By water 

Alluvial, by streams ; drift, by glaciers 
Farm Soils: 
Sandy 
Clay 
Loam 
Limestone 
Soil Moisture: 
Uses of water: 

Supphes plant food 
Dissolves and carries plant food 
Sources of loss : 

Percolation, or passing through soil spaces 

7 



AGRICULTURE 

Evaporation, or changing from a liquid state to a vapor 

Transpiration, or giving out, as vapor, from leaves 
Lack supplied by irrigation 
Excess removed by drainage 
Soil Ventilation: 
Uses of air: 

Supplies oxygen to plant roots 

Supplies carbon dioxide for chemical processes 
Evils of under-ventilation 
Evils of over-ventilation 
Soil Temperature : 
Warmth needed for: 

Germination of plants 

Growth of plants 

Chemical processes and work of bacteria 
Soil warmth affected by: 

Slope of land 

Nature of soil 

Moisture 
Soil warmed by: • ' 

Drainage 

Tillage 

Manures 
Composition of Soil: 
Some metallic elements: 

Iron, calcium, m.agnesium, potassium, sodium, aluminium 
Some non-metaUic elements : 

Sihcon, sulphur, phosphorus, chlorine, carbon, oxygen, hydro- 
gen, nitrogen 



AGRICULTURE 

CHAPTER ONE 

THE SOIL 

FORMATION OF THE SOIL 

Soil. — We are now to consider the ])rocesses by which Nature 
brings forth harvests from the soil, and the ways in which man can 
aid and direct her work. 

What, in the iirst place, is the soil? 

It is the thin layer of surface earth which covers our globe. 
It is composed of fine particles of rock, mixed with matter formed 
by the decay of plants and animals. Its thickness is measured 
by feet, often by inches. Below it for many miles extends the solid 
earth-crust. 

Probably you are familiar with some j)lace where a river or road 
has cut its way through a hill. There you can examine the la}-crs 
of the earth-crust. On the top you find grass or weeds or trees. 
Below that is the soil, which is generally dark in color; gradually 
this changes into the subsoil, which is harder and usually lighter 
colored. Under that there is a layer of rock. 

Importance and Uses of Soil. — Compared with the size of the 
earth, the soil is no more than a film of dust on an orange. Yet it 
is this film, this surface-layer, this earth-dust, which gives us the 
fragrant beauty of the rose, the grateful shade of the oak, the whole- 
some food of the corn. Without it, plant and animal life could not 

o 



10 AGRICULTURE 

exist. It supplies a root-hold and home for plants. It is a store- 
house for the water, air, and heat which they need. It is a manu- 
factory, too, in which forces and organisms are at work changing 
matter into forms that plants can use for food. 

Formation of Earth-crust. — Have you ever considered how the 
soil was formed ? We are told that long ago the earth was a fiery 
mass of matter whirling through space. Gradually it cooled, and 
as it cooled it hardened into a sphere, or round body. Its surface 
was a crust of solid rock, surrounded by heavy acid vapors. 

Bare and lifeless as a ball of iron, it whirled through space. 
There was no foothold for the tiniest plant, no home for the hum- 
blest insect. Then God set His servants, the forces of nature, to 
work to make the barren rock an abode for plants and animals. 
Many agencies worked, singly and together. 

Heat and Cold. — First, there were heat and cold. As you 
know, heat causes most substances to expand, or grow larger, 
and cold makes them contract, or grow smaller. As the earth- 
surface cooled, the rock contracted, cracked, and broke, forming 
elevations and depressions, or hills and valleys. The cold con- 
densed the heavy acid vapors surrounding the earth and they de- 
scended in rain. Continents rose, small at first, but increasing in 
size as the earth-crust shrank and cracked. The waters flowed in 
streams through narrow valleys and in deep ones formed lakes, 
seas, and oceans. 

Atmosphere. — The atmosphere, or air and gases and vapors 
around the earth, worked slowly but constantly. It crumbled the 
earth-surface and bore the rock-dust from one place to another. 

Water. — The greatest part of the soil-making, however, was done 
by water in its various forms — vapor, rain, dew, frost, snow, and 
ice. As a gas, a lic|uid, and a solid, it worked and is still working. 
During those early days water was busy, — rain and streams 




Permission of Forestry Servio 



Water at Wokk 
The Rapids of the Catawba River in North Carolina. 



12 



AGRICULTURE 




Lichens on a Rock 



wearing down the rocks, ice breaking them, frost crumbling them, 
making the particles fine and ever finer. 

Fungi, Lichens, and Mosses. — Even before the rocks were 
ground and crumbled, there arose simple forms of vegetable life,- 

fun'gi, ll'chens', and mosses. 
They drew some food from 
the air, and dissolved and 
absorbed other food from 
the rock. Their decay add- 
ed to the rock- dust the 
material gathered from the 
air. This formed soil. It 
w^as poor and shallow at 
first, able to nourish only 
fungi, mosses, and other simple forms of life. 

But countless generations of low forms of plants and animals 
deepened and enriched the soil. Higher and yet higher forms 
succeeded. Untiringly, unrestingly, worked the forces of nature, 
so slowly that at the end of a year or a century little advance 
was visible, but so surely that the earth became a fair garden 
spot, rich in vegetable and animal life. 

Classes of Soils. — x\ccording to their origin, soils arc divided 
into two classes, sed'en ta ry and trans port'ed. 

Sedentary Soils. — Sedentary soils, or soils in place, are those 
that rest upon the rock from which they were formed. The soil 
differs from the rock in being fine, loose, and porous, so as to 
admit air, water, and roots. It is crumbled rock, subjected to 
the action of plant and animal organisms and mixed with matter 
formed by their decay. 

Transported Soils. — But all soils do not rest upon the rocks 
from which they were formed. Many have been transported, or 



THE SOIL 13 

carried, and deposited hundreds of miles from the parent rock. 
The two chief soil-transporters are wind and water. 

Wind as Soil-transporter. — Probably you have seen snow 
whirled along and heaped up by a gust of wind. In the same way 

the winds gather up soil and bear it along wherever it is loose 

and unprotected by vegetation. • In the Desert of Sahara there 




Sand Him.s in the Dfsert of Sahara 

are sand drifts larger and deeper than snowdrifts ever are in New 
England. Wind shifts sand on the seashore and along the lakes, 
but it is not an important soil-transporter in many parts of our 
country. 

Water as Soil-transporter. — The world's great soil-transj)orter 
is water. The rain is constantly carrying soil from hills to val- 
leys. Streams are constantly bearing it along and depositing it 
on their banks. Have you noticed a brook after a sudden summer 
shower? The water, usually as clear as crystal, is dark with mud; 
it rushes along, bearing particles of soil and even gravel and stones. 

Suppose you take a glassful of this muddy water and let it 
stand a few hours. The water will be clear again, but at the 



u 



AGRICULTURE 




Gn the left is a glass of muddy water; on 
the right is the same a few hours later, 
showing sediment. 



bottom of the glass will be a sediment of mud. This is soil which 
the rain washed down into the brook. The amount in one 

glass of water is small, but 
think how much the brook and 
all the other streams transport. 
Where a rolling field is un- 
drained and badly tilled, every 
rain steals some of its fertil- 
ity; later you will learn how 
a farmer can protect his land 
against such thefts. 

Alluvial Soils. — Streams bear 
clown to the ocean a vast amount 
of soil, but far less than they get from the hillsides. Like greedy 
children, they take more than they want and have to leave part. 
They drop it in shallows and leave it along the banks. This 
material, deposited by water, forms al iQ'vi al soils. They are 
usually fertile loams, rich in organic matter. 

Egypt, ' the gift of the Nile,' is formed of soil brought from distant 
mountains by heavy rainfalls and floods. So Louisiana is the 
gift of the Mississippi. The sediment which forms its fertile soil 
has been brought hundreds of miles by the river. Each year the 
Mississippi carries to the ocean enough soil to cover two hundred 
and sixty-eight square miles V'ith a layer one foot deep. 

Drijt Soils. — Most of the soil of America in the great area north 
of the thirty-ninth parallel is a transported soil. It was formed, 
not by streams of water, but by gla'ciers, or streams of ice. 

The Glacial Period. — Thousands of years ago, the climate in the 
region north of the ec|uator became very cold. There came a long, 
long winter which destroyed plant and animal life. Snow fell until it 
was hundreds and thousands of feet deep. This formed a glacier. 



THE SOIL 



15 



a mass of ice many hundreds of feet thick. It extended from the 
Arctic regions southward to central Pennsylvania and from New 
England to the Rocky Mountains, covering two thirds of North 
America. The glacier moved far more slowly than does water, 
but its grinding and transporting power was much greater. It 
wore down hills and filled up valleys. Like a giant millstone, it 
ground rocks to powder. At last it melted, depositing a layer of 
soil. 




A Greeni.ani^ Glacier 

The ice-mass is darkened by soil and rock waste. The rounded pebbles and rocks have 
been transported hundreds of miles and deposited by the melting glacier. 

Soils of the United States. — The underlying surface rock of the 
northern part of the United States is chiefly sandstone; had the 
soil been formed from this, it would have been thin and poor. 
The soil formed by the glacial deposit is usually deep and fertile, 
being formed by the grinding and mixing of a variety of rocks. 



l6 AGRICULTURE 

The soils of New England are nearly all drift or alluvial; those 
of the Southern states are alluvial or sedentary. 

Soil Fertility. — Left to the processes of nature, as a rule, soil 
becomes more fertile, more productive, year by year. Is this the 
case when it is cultivated by man ? It ought to be. Good farming 
maintains and increases the fertility of soil. This fertility, or 
productive power, is well termed ' the farmer's capital.' If his 
methods are good, he preserves and increases the fertihty of 
his land. He draws a large interest in good crops, and adds to his 
capital. Thus year by year he and his farm are enriched. If 
his methods are bad, his crop lessens his capital; every year his 
farm grows poorer, and so does he. 

Methods in America. — There are to-day in the United States 
thousands of acres of ' worn out ' land which fifty years ago were 
cultivated fields and a hundred years ago were forests. On the 
other hand, there are thousands of acres which industry and skill 
have reclaimed from barrenness and made productive. 

EXPERIMENTS 

1. Put some clean stones in water. Let the water freeze and then 
expose it to heat. Repeat several times and then examine it. What 
causes the sediment at the bottom ? 

2. Scrape lichens from a stone. Compare it with a freshly broken 
rock. Notice how the lichen-covered stone is marked and furrowed. 
Why is this ? 

3. Stir into a pint of clear water as much clay as it will dissolve. 
Let it settle, and then measure the sediment. What does this show 
as to the soil-bearing power of water? 

FARM SOILS 

Let us examine three substances which we may regard as the 
basis of soils. These three substances are sand, clay, and hii'mus. 



THE SOIL 



17 




A knowledge of their properties will enable us to understand more 
clearly the characteristics, or natural traits, of soils. 

Sand. — Here is a piece of c|uartz. If you pulverize, or powder 
it, you will have sand. But the rock is so hard that you would find 
this difficult to do; so we will fill a gill measure 
with sand, which is rock that has been worn 
down by natural processes. You observe that 
the sand is heavy, and that it consists of little 
hard grains. If you try to press it into shape, the 
dry grains fall apart. ]\Iix it with some water, 
noticing how much it will absorb, or hold. You 
can press the wet sand into shape, but it dries 
quickly and then falls apart again if you han- 
dle it. Now put the sand into a glass half full ^'^ P'^^ce of quartz 
of water, and stir it. The particles separate readily, but when 
you stop stirring they sink quickly to the bottom of the glass. 
Soon the water will be clear again. The dry sand does not stick 
to your fingers, and you can easily rub off the wet particles. 

Clay. — Now take a piece of potter's clay. It is so much 
softer than quartz that we can, without difficulty, grind it to 
powder. Let us fill a gill measure with this powder, and exam- 
ine and test it as we did the sand. We find that it is light in 
weight. Instead of feeling hard, it is soft to the touch; that 
is because the particles composing it are very small. If you 
squeeze it in your hand, it takes the imprint of your fingers. 
Mix it with water. You find that it absorbs much more than 
did the sand, and that you can mold it into any shape you 
wish. It does not dissolve readily in water, and when it docs 
dissolve, it settles very slowly, leaving the water discolored a long 
time. You find that the wet clay is sticky, and even the dry 
clay adheres to your fingers and soils them. 



AGRICULTURE 




Differences between Sand and Clay. — What have we learned 
from these experiments with sand and clay? We have found that 
sand is heavier in weight than clay; it is composed of small, hard 
grains which do not adhere closely; it holds little water, settles 
quickly in water, and is not sticky. We have learned that clay 
consists of very small particles which adhere closely; it holds 

much water, does not settle quickly 
in water, and is sticky. These dif- 
ferences are largely the result of one 
thing, a difference in texture. The 
texture of sand or clay, like that 
of cloth, depends upon the size of its 
particles and their relation to one an- 
other. We say of clay, as of muslin, 
that its texture is ' fine ' and ' close,' 
— that is, its particles are small and 
near together; we say of sand, as of 
bagging, that its texture is 'coarse' and 'loose,' — that is, its 
particles are large and far apart. 

Humus. — But let us look at the dark-colored substance called 
humus, which we place in a third gill measure. Humus is not 
formed, as are sand and clay, Uy the breaking down of rocks; it 
is formed by the decay of vegetable matter. You observe that 
humus is light -in weight, lighter than clay and much hghter than 
sand. It is soft to the touch, because its particles are very fine. It 
absorbs a great deal of water and dries very slowly. Its capacity 
for absorbing and holding water and heat is a very important quality 
of humus. Although humus is soft to the touch, it is not sticky 
like clay, and it does not ' bake,' or dry hard. 

Effect of Humus on Sand and Clay. — Now let us divide this 
humus and add half to the sand and half to the clay. We find that 



Soil Particles, magnified 

162 TIMES 



THE SOIL 19 

it modifies the qualities of both; it binds together the particles 
of sand and enables it to hold more moisture; it makes the clay 
less adhesive or sticky, and keeps it from baking when it dries. 

Farm Soils. — • Let us see the application to agricultural soils of 
these facts about sand, clay, and humus. A farmer will tell you that 
the four chief classes of soils are sandy, clay, loam, and limestone. 
These are the most important and most widely distributed. 
Later, you will learn their special adaptations to crop plants and 
how their qualities may b2 modified and improved. 

Sandy Soil. — A sandy soil is made up largely of sand. Farmers 
call such a soil ' light,' although it is the heaviest in weight. The 
term is applied to its working quality. It is light and easy to 
work, because its particles do not adhere closely. It is so open in 
texture that air and water pass freely through it;' thus it recovers 
quickly from rain and can be worked early in the spring. 

Clay Soil. — A clay soil contains large quantities of clay. It 
differs from sandy land in the fineness and relations of its particles; 
though it is lighter in weight than sand, farmers call a clay soil 
' heavy ' because it is heavy or hard to work. This is due to the 
fact that its partkles adhere closely. Water, air, and heat do not 
])enetrate it readily, but it has great power to absorb and retain 
moisture. Heavy winter rains make it wet and cold, so that it 
cannot be worked until late in the spring. If plowed too wet, it 
runs into a sticky mass and bakes when dry. If plowed too dry 
it breaks in hard clods. 

Loam. — Loam is composed of a mixture of sand, clay, and 
humus. According to the quantity of sand or clay, it is called 
a ' sandy loam ' or a ' clay loam.' Loam is easy to work. Its 
porous texture enables air and water to penetrate it readily, and 
its humus enables it to retain water and heat. 

Limestone Soil. — A limestone soil is one derived from limestone 



20 



AGRICULTURE 



rock. Other things being equal, " limestone country is rich coun- 
try." The soil is generally dry, warm, and healthy for stock; 
and its luxuriant growth of grass especially fits it for stock rais- 
ing. 

Alkali Lands. — Al'ka li soils contain large deposits of mineral 
salts which check vegetation. They are found in dry regions in 
the western part of the United States, in Egypt, in India, and in 
other countries. 

Swamp Soils. — Swamp soils, found in what are or have been 
lowlands, contain a large amount of decaying vegetable matter. 




A Scene in the Dismal Swamp 



The great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina has, by 
continued deposits of vegetable matter, been raised above the sur- 
face of the surrounding country. 



THE SOIL 



21 



EXPERIMENTS 

1. Try for yourself the experiments with sand, clay, and humus 
described on pages i6, 17, and 18. 

2. Get specimens of sandy and clay soil and loam. Compare them 
as to color and weight, and as to size of particles. 

3. Make a rack, like the one in 
the illustration, by boring holes in 
one side of a box. Get three glass 
tubes or straight lamp chimneys, tie 
a cloth over the smaller end of each, 
and put in one sand, in one clay, 
and in one garden loam or wood 
mold. Set them in the rack with 
the lower end of each over a glass 
of water, as illustrated. Pour water '^ 
into them. Through which decs it ~ 
percolate first ; which absorbs most 
water before it begins to drip ; which 
takes lonTCst to become drv? 




ILIASIRATION OK EXPERIMENT 3 



For this and other experiments it is well to have an eight-ounce grad- 
uated glass, such as druggists use, in which to measure water. 

4. Fill three tubes, as before, with the three kinds of soil. Set 
them in the rack with the lower end of each in a glass of water. In 
which tube does water rise most rapidly, and in which does it rise to 
the greatest height ? 

5. What is the character of the soils of your section? Collect and 
examine some specimens and write an account of them. 

Many interesting experiments with soils may be made by the use of 
a set of soil sieves, which separate particles according to size. Sepa- 
rate a soil and make the same tests with each (if the classes. The 
differences in power to absorb and retain water arc due largely to the 
differences in size of particles. 



22 



AGRICULTURE 



SOIL MOISTURE 

Plants' Need of Water. — The soil is the home of 
plants, the storehouse of their food. We know that 
it is necessary to the growth of crops, and yet it is 
not necessary to plant hfe. 

A seed, such as Indian corn, will sprout in water. 
If there be added to the water certain substances 
which it needs for food, the plant will continue to 
grow and flourish without soil. 

Uses of Water. — But no plant will grow in any soil 
without moisture. Moisture is needed to make the seed 
ger'min ate, or sprout; the plant can take its food from 
the soil only in a licjuid form. Water dissolves plant 
food, conveys it to the roots, bears it through the 
stem and branches to the leaves, where it is prepared 
for food; thence it is carried where it is needed in 
the structure of the plant. 

An enormous quan- 
tity of water is re- 
quired for these 
purposes. A twenty- 
five-bushel crop of 
wheat uses over five 
lumdred tons of water 
during its season of 
growth. Where does 
the wheat get this 
water ? The amount 
is far in excess of the 
usual rainfall during 





A. In this tube is shown 
the amount of water 
required to wet the 
pebbles in the glass. 



B. In this tube is shown 
the amount of water re- 
quired to wet the sand 
made by crushing the 
pebbles in A. 



THE SOIL 



23 



its growing season. Some it gets from the air, but for the greater 
portion it depends upon its storehouse, the soil. 

Soil Water. — If you dig down into the soil, you find it moist 
below the dry surface, even when there has not been rain for sev- 
eral days. Each particle of this moist soil is surrounded by a 
film of water. Around these particles is air. The finer the 
particles of soil, the more numerous are the water films and 
the air spaces. Fine-grained clay can contain three or four 
times as much water and air as can coarse-grained sand. 
Careful experiments prove that under average weather condi- 
tions there is in twelve inches of well-tilled loam about four 
thousand barrels of water to the acre. Near or far below the 
surface, a depth is reached where the soil spaces are filled with 
water instead of air. This is called the ' water table.' 

The water in the soil is always in motion. 
Sometimes it is drawn downward by the force V 

of grav'i ty. Sometimes it is drawn upward by (' '% 

the force of cap'il lar'i ty. ''■ V 

Gravity. — Gravity is the tendency of particles \ 
or bodies toward a center of attraction. It is \\ l,| 
this force which makes the apple fall and '^' 

which makes the rain sink into the wet earth. 
Coarse, sandy soils offer little resistance to grav- 
ity and allow water to sink freely, but fine clay 
soils hinder its action. If this force worked 
alone, all water would sink into the earth out capiuary 
of reach of plant roots. 

Capillarity. — The force of gravity is counter- 
acted by the force of capillarity, or cap'il la ry 
attraction. Capillarity causes a lluid to ascend through a porous 
subUance; it makes oil rise in the lamp wick, ink in the blotter, 




24 



AGRICULTURE 



water in the soil. A coarse, sandy soil has little power to lift 
water by capillarity, because its particles are so far apart. In a 
clay soil, on the other hand, the particles are so close together 
that they hinder capillary movement. Capillarity works best in 
soils of medium texture. 

Soil Loss of Water. — The soil loses water in three ways, — 
by per co la'iion, by trans pi ra'tion, and by e vap o ra'tion. 
Percolation. — By percolation water passes through the soil, 

and is carried by the force of 
gravity out of reach of plant 
roots. This loss is greatest in 
coarse, loose soils. They need to 
be kept compact to hold the wa- 
ter near the surface. 

Evaporation. — Evaporation is 
the passing off of moist-ure into the 
air as a vapor. If you spill water 
on the floor, in a Httle w^hile it dis- 
appears. It evaporates. Much 
of the moisture brought to the soil 
surface by capillarity is removed by 
evaporation. In hot, dry weather, 
it removes water faster than capil- 
The moisture condensed on the glass larity can supply it ; that is wliy the 

was transpired by the plant. r i ^ i i i 

surface becomes dry and parched. 
Transpiration. — Much of the water taken up by plants is 
returned to the air by transpiration, or being given out through 
the pores of their leaves. Transpiration is greatest in hot, dry, 
windy weather. Plants differ greatly in the armount of water 
which they transpire. Willows, poplars, and other wet-loving 
trees are like great pumps, drawing water out of the soil and 




THE SOIL 25 

pouring it into the air. For this reason they are sometimes 
planted in wet pastures to dry them so that grass will grow there. 

Care of Soil Moisture. — As agricultural plants need much 
moisture, farmers in most sections find it important to conserve, 
or save, and utilize soil moisture as fully as possible. The methods 
used depend largely on soil, climate, and weather conditions. A 
soil's water-holding capacity is increased by deep plowing, and by 
the addition of manures and of humus. Loss by evaporation 
can h: checked by stirring the surface so as to form a soil- 
mulch, or layer of loose soil, an inch or two thick. This sepa- 
rates the particles so that they cannot lift the moisture from the 
soil and subsoil to the surface, where it is carried off by evapora- 
tion. 

Irrigation. — In some sections the rainfall is scanty or uneven 
and the ' water table ' is far from the surface. Even when the soil 
moisture is properly cared for, there is not enough to supply crop 
needs. This may be the case with soils which are rich in plant food. 
Are these to be given over to barrenness ? It has been found wise 
and practicable to ir'ri gate these lands, — that is, to supply them 
with water by a system of reservoirs and canals connected with 
streams. Lands thus reclaimed are often wonderfully productive. 
There are millions of acres of land in the western part of the United 
States which need ir ri ga'tion. 

Drainage. — While some soils are barren for lack of water, 
others are useless for agricultural purposes on account of its excess. 
We have already seen tnat some plants can live without soil in water 
supplied with plant food. Does it, then, seem contradictory to say 
that plants can have too much water? In fact, it is not that they 
have too much water, but that they have too little air. Plants, like 
animals, need ox'y gen, and this oxygen they take in chiefly through 
their roots. Like animals, they are drowned and die if deprived 



26 



AGRICULTURE 



of air. Some air reaches the roots of plants in water, but it is 
exchided from close, saturated soils. 

You may have seen stunted, sickly-looking stalks of corn in a 
marshy place, while near by on better-drained land were large, 
thrifty plants. In wet land, the roots' supply of air is so limited 
that growth is stunted. Certain plants, such as rice, are adapted 
to saturated soils, as fish are to water. But most agricultural 
plants need well-drained soil. There are millions of acres of land 
in the United States which need drainage to make them productive. 



EXPERIMENTS 

I. Fill a glass with gravel or small pebbles and pour into it as much 
water as is needed to wet them, — that is, to form water films around each 
one without leaving any free, or standing, water. Crush the pebbles as 

fine as you can so as to form a 
coarse sand, and see how much 
water is required to wet this. 
Which requires more water, the 
pebbles or the sand, and why? 

2. Put a layer of gravel in a 
pan and then fill it with water. 
Put in this three glass tubes 
of different sizes, supported in a 
rack or frame. Notice that the 
smaller the tube is, the higher 
the water rises. Thus water 
rises higher through small soil 
spaces than through large ones. 

3. Repeat experiments 3 
and 4 described on page 21. What force causes water to descend 
in the soil ? What force causes it to rise ? 

4. Put a plant with long roots in a bottle nearly full of water. Put 
paper around the stem and cover it with parafl&n so as to make the bottle 
air-tie;ht. Measure the height of the water and weicrh the whole. Meas- 





^ 


\ 1 


1 


T] 








i • 


1 








;-:- --- 


i 

f 


1 

I 


i 

1 








^^.1 


■^^-. 


L_. 


L^. , "X 


fr- — — ^ 






J^~ •>■ — » 



Illustration of Experiment 2 



THE SOIL 27 

ure and weigh it again in one week, and in two weeks. What has be- 
come of the water? 

5. Fill two glass jars with moist, well-packed soil. Smooth the surface 
of one and let it form a crust. Keep the second covered to the depth 
of an inch with loose soil. Weigh. At the end of a week, weigh again 
and examine the condition of the soil in each. 



SOIL VENTILATION 

Uses of Air. — As has been already said, it is as important to 
admit air to the soil as to remove surplus water. Few plants can 
flourish unless air is admitted to their roots. The air is of benefit 
in several ways. Plants need the oxygen to breathe; the car'bon 
di ox'ide works in the soil, preparing plant food. 

Under- ventilated Soils. — There is a great dif- 
ference in the natural ventilation, or airing, of 
soils. Stiff clay soils are poorly ventilated. 
They arc so compact, ^or close, that they do 
not admit the air freely; in wet seasons or 
regions the water stands and chokes the air soil partici.ks 
spaces. Such soils need drainage. As water ^^^ si-aces 

is drawn out, air is drawn in by suction. Drainage allows roots to 
penetrate deeper and range more freely; these roots open channels for 
water and air. Tillage, or cultivation, also helps ventilate the soil. 

Over-ventilated Soils. — On the other hand, coarse, sandy soils 
are often too thoroughly ventilated. Air and water pass freely 
through and carry away plant food; because of this loss of plant 
food, sandy land is often poor. Such a soil needs to be kept firm, 
except for a soil-mulch to protect it against loss of moisture by 
evaporation. 




28 



AGRICULTURE 



EXPERIMENTS 

I. Put in each of two bottles of water a cutting of wandering jew, 
or some other easily rooted plant. Pour melted wax into one bottle, so 

as to cover the surface of the water and 
exclude air. What is the result? 

2. Put a nourishing plant in a tin can of 
fertile earth. Keep it Hooded with water 
and notice the result. 




SOIL TEMPERATURE 

Conditions affecting Climate. — Soil 
temperature, or' its condition with re- 
gard to heat and cold, is determined 

To tlie cutting on the left, air is freely , . n i t /">t 

admitted; it is excluded from that chiefly by. climatc. Climatc, you know, 
on the right by melted wax poured is affected by many tilings, — nearness 

over the surface of the water. , ,i ' " , i • i ^ 

to the ocean, ocean currents, height 
above sea le\el, distance from the equator, prevailing winds, and 
the presence or al^scnce of forests. 

Conditions affecting Soil Temperature. — But there is often 
difference in the temperature of soils exposed to the same climatc. 
The slope of land affects its warmth. A field that slopes to the 
south receives more of the sun's heat waves than one inclining to the 
north, and so is warmer. Color affects temperature. A dark soil 
is warmer than a light one, as a black dress is warmer than a white 
one; the dark cok)r absorbs more heat waves. 

A wet soil is colder than a dry one. Many of the lieat waves 
which fall on wet land are spent in evaporating its surplus water; 
the heat waves on a dry soil are used to raise its temperature. You 
have probably had a personal ex])erience which illustrates this. 
Were you ever caught in the rain and compelled to remain awhile 
in your wet clothes? It may have been summer, but unless you 



THE SOIL 29 

kept yourself warm by exercise, you became chilled. This was 
l)ecausc llie licat wliich would have kept your body comfortable 
was being used to evaporate tlie water from your clothes. 

EXPERIMENTS 

1. Take three boxes of the same size and fill one with dry sand, one 
with dry clay, and one with dry loam. In each insert a thermometer to 
a depth of two inches. Take the temperature at g a.m. Set the boxes 
in the sunshine and take the temperature at 12 m. Put in the shade 
and take the temperature at 4 p.m. What differences do you notice? 

2. Put a cupful of dry sand, one of wet sand, and one of water on 
a warm stove. Which becomes warm first and which last? Why? 

3. Take the temperature at midday of the soil two inches below 
the surface in a wet, undrained field and in a well-drained field. What 
difference do you fin;l ? Explain the reason. 

COMPOSITION OF THE SOIL 

Elements. — Wc are apt to think of the objects around us as 
simple substances, but this is 'seldom the case. Plants, animals, 
the soil, and even most rocks are made up of several elements, 
or simple substances. These are mixed and combined in different 
ways so as to produce very different results. Strange as it seems, 
it is none the less true, that our bodies, a blade of grass, and the dust 
under our feet are composed of almost the same elements. Chem- 
ists have j)rovcd this by separating these compound substances into 
the simple ones com])osing tliem. As the farmer measures wheat 
and the grocer weighs flour, so tlie chemist measures and weighs 
the elements of the soil, air, and water, of plant and animal bodies. 

Elements as Plant Food. — Although we may ne\er wish to 
separate and examine them as does the chemist, it is well for us to 
know something about these elements. We are interested in the 



30 AGRICULTURE 

earth-crust as the source of plant food, and it is these which supply 
that food. 

In Nature's vast storehouse, most of the elements needed by- 
plants are placed within their reach, in bountiful quantities, 
but sometimes one or more are lacking. The farmer who under- 
stands this subject can supply the needed elements, and by thus 
feeding his crop — or fertilizing it, as we say — can increase its yield. 

Let us consider, then, some of the elements in the earth-crust. 

Metallic Elements. — Six important elements of the soil are 
metalhc, — iron, cal'ci um, mag ne'si um, po tas'si um, so'di um, 
and al ii min'i um. 

Iron is an important element everywhere abundant. It forms 
from one to four per cent of the soil. 

Calcium is a yellowish metal. It is found in hmestone. 

Magnesium is a hard, white metal. 

Potassium is a soft, whitish metal. With ox'y gen it forms 
pot'ash, which is a compound of great importance in agriculture. 

Sodium is a soft, light metal, resembling potassium in appearance. 

Aluminium is a hard, white metal, like silver in appearance. 

Nonmetallic Elements. — The most important and abundant 
nonmetallic elements of the soil are sil'i con, sul'phur, phos'- 
phor us, chlo'rine, oxygen, hy'dro gen, ni'tro gen, and car'bon. 

Silicon is the second most abundant element in the earth's 
crust, of which it forms from one fourth to one third. 

Sulphur is a pale yellow substance. 

Phosphorus is a soft, yellowish substance. It is usually found in 
small quantities in the soil, and its lack is soon felt by plants. 

Chlorine is a gas of yellowish green color and disagreeable odor. 

Oxygen is a colorless gas, the most plentiful element in nature. 
It forms one half of the earth-crust, one fifth of the air, and eight 
ninths of the water. 



THE SOIL 51 

Hydrogen is another colorless gas, the h'ghtest known substance. 
United with oxgyen it forms water, one of the most important and 
abundant compounds in nature. Without water, plant and ani- 
mal life cannot exist. 

Nitrogen is a colorless gas which forms four fifths of the air. 
It is necessary to both plants and animals. 

Carbon, which exists in the earth-crust in three forms, is found 
in plants and animals, often in large quantities. Plants, however, 
get little carbon from the soil. They take most of their supply from 
the carbon dioxide of the air, a gas formed by the union of oxygen 
and carbon. 

Compounds. — Few of these elements are found separate, or 
free, in the soil. Usually they are combined to form compounds. 

Oxygen takes part in more compounds than any other ele- 
ment; it unites readily with almost all other elements. Nitrogen, 
on the other hand, takes part in very few compounds. We have 
learned that nitrogen is necessary to both plants and animals, 
but neither animals nor the higher plants have the power of using 
free nitrogen — that is, nitrogen uncombined with other elements. 

How, then, do they get their supply? Animals get theirs from 
plants, upon which they feed directly or indirectly. The nitrogen 
in the soil or the air is prepared for plant use by little organisms, 
called bac te'ri a, of which you will learn more later. 

Fertile and Sterile Soils. — The particles of the earth-crust have 
been so mixed and combined by wind and water, by jjlants and ani- 
mals, and by chemical action, that practically the same elements 
enter into the composition of all soils. A sterile soil is composed 
of the same elements as a fertile one. The fertile soil, however, 
contains all the elements necessary for plant food in sufficient quan- 
tity and in available forms, — that is, in forms which plants can use. 

Some elements, such as aluminium, are not used by plants for 



32 



AGRICULTURE 



food. Others, such as chlorine, do not seem necessary to plant 
life; most plants flourish without them. Others, such as iron, 
are so abundant that even the poorest soils are 
well supplied. 

Elements sometimes Lacking. — There are 
three elements which are necessary for plant food 
and which arc sometimes lacking in the soil 
or are found in forms which plants cannot use. 
These three are potassium, phosphorus, and nitro- 
gen. More rarely, calcium is lacking. 

If the soil lacks any one element, that one 
must be supplied. Without it a crop 
will not thrive, although all others 
may be abundant. The case is like 
that of a painter who is making a 
picture and needs several colors. He 
cannot paint his picture if you give 
him much blue paint and no yellow, 
when he needs some blue and some 
yellow. So Nature must have all her 
materials, the elements needed for crop growing. 

Now, it is the farmer's aim to get from his soil the largest crop 
possible at the least possible cost. In order to do this he must 
know what his land needs and how to supply it in the most eco- 
nomical way. It is here that chemistry comes to his aid, as will be 
explained in the chai)ter on Soil Improvement. 

EXPERIMENT 
Take two ounces of pure sand and two ounces of rich wood mold. 
Heat each over an alcohol lamp and weigh again. The organic matter 
has been burned off ; what remains is inorganic matter derived from the 
rock. What difference is there between the sand and the mold? 




The buckwheat plant on the left is 
supplied with every element needed 
except potash ; the plant on the 
right is supplied with potash also. 



OUTLINE OF CHAPTER TWO 

THE PLANT 
Parts of a Plant : 

Seed 
Root 
Stem : 

Branches, twigs 
Leaves 
Blossoms : 

Calyx, — sepals 

Corolla, — petals 

Stamen, — filament, anther, pollen 

Pistil, — stigma, style, ovary 
Duration of Plants : 
Annual 
Biennial 
Perennial 
Differences in the Parts of Plants : 
Roots : 

Taprooted, fibrous 
Stems : 

Upright, climbing, prostrate 
Blossoms : 

Perfect, imperfect 

Pollen carried by wind, by insects 
Seeds : 

Scattered by plant, by wind, by animals 
Plant Food : 

Air-derived elements : 

Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen indirectly through soil 
Necessarv soil-derived elements : 

Iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, sulphur 

33 



34 



AGRICULTURE 

Plant Reproduction from Buds : 

Layering 
Cutting 
Grafting 
Budding 
Transplanting: 
Rules for success : 

Choose suitable season and weather 

Transplant young plants 

Do not injure the roots 

Prune the tops, if necessary 

Set firmly in moist soil 

Set no shallower and little deeper than they grew originally 

Use a mulch of straw, leaves, or loose earth 
Plant Reproduction from Seeds: 
How to obtain good seed : 

Select from plants in the field 

Consider each plant as a whole 

Choose vigorous,' productive plants having desired qualities 

Select large, vigorous seed 

Dry them carefully 

Store them in a cool, dry place 

Examine seeds for purity and test as to vitality 
How to Plant Seeds : 

Depth 

Soil condition 

Time 
Plant Improvement: 
Underlying principles : 

Heredity, variation, selection 
jNlelhods: 

Selection of seeds or buds, cultivation, crossing, hybridizing 



CHAPTER TWO 
THE PLANT 
FROM SEED TO SEED 

Seed and Plant. — Here is a seed, grayish green and fuzzy. 
Have you seen one like it before ? If not, this seed brings to your 
mind only a vague, general idea. You know that under favorable 
conditions it will produce a plant, something green and living. 

If you are familiar with this seed, you know just what kind of 
plant it will be, and how it will grow. It will be weak at first, 
and rather clumsy-looking when its crumpled seed leaves push 
through the soil. But it will grow strong and graceful, and throw 
out spreading branches like a tiny maple tree. It will become 
perhaps two feet, perhaps six feet, tall. It will put forth buds called 
' squares' ; then pretty cream-colored blossoms, changing with age 
to rosy pink; then fruit called ' bolls.' The bolls, at iirst green, 
will grow larger and turn brown. When ripe, they will open and 
yield a harvest of soft white fiber, the cotton of which our clothing 
is made. All this lies infolded in this grayish green, fuzzy seed. 

If the question be asked, " For what does the farmer grow the 
cotton plant? " you answer readily, " For the sake of its fiber." 
You know that, because his chief care is to save and use it. But 
if you are asked why Nature raises the cotton plant, you find it 
more difficult to answer. It is not for the graceful plant, nor the 
pretty blossoms, nor the soft fiber. She lets all these return to the 
soil. One thing she saves and uses, — the seeds inwrappcd in the 
fiber, the seeds which bring forth new plants. 

35 



36 



AGRICULTURE 



Cotton Plant. — Let us follow in detail the life history of a cotton 
plant. It is a pretty and interesting plant, which less than two 
hundred years ago was grown as an ornament in flower gardens. 
Now it is one of our chief agricultural crops. It is a good plant 
with which to begin our study of agricultural plants on account of 
its perfect and conspicuous blossom, its regular habits of growth, 





GERMINATiNG COTTON : STAGES OK DEVELOPMENT 



and the way in vv-hich man has influenced Nature in its develop- 
ment. 

Seed Development. — Cut open a cotton seed and examine it 
carefully. Wrapped in a hard covering or hull are a germ, or 
minute plant, and food to support the plant until it can put forth 
roots and get food for itself from the soil. 

How can we help the httle plant come forth from the seed ? It 
must have help from outside. We know that we may keep seeds 
year after year, and they never develop into plants. To make 



THE PLANT 37 

them germinate, they need three things, — moisture and warmth 
and air. Let us supply these. Put some cotton seed in a flower- 
pot filled with fertile soil. Keep it moist and warm, and your 
seeds will germinate and develop into plants. 

In the soil, however, you cannot watch the development as you 
would like to do. For this purpose, let us use a glass. Fill it 
with soil, and plant cotton seed next to the glass. Fasten paper 
or cloth around the outside, to exclude the light ; keep the soil 
moist, and the glass in a warm place. The seeds will germinate 
more cjuickly if they are soaked twenty-four hours before they are 
planted. 

How Plants Grow. — As a seed absorbs moisture, it swells. 
Then it puts forth a tiny shoot, the first root ; from the other end of 
this, after a while, it puts forth the beginning of the stem. The first 
tiny shoot turns downward into the soil, never by any chance making 
a mistake and growing upward. The stem goes upward into the 
air and sunlight as surely as the root goes downward into the soil 
and darkness. 

We said that the store of nourishment in the seed enables the 
plant to ])Ut forth its root and stem. But that store is soon ex- 
hausted, and the little plant must get food for itself. This is, in 
part, the work of the root. 

How Plants Feed. — The cotton plant has what is called a tap- 
root, a long, straight main root. From this grow branch roots, which 
divide and subdivide into rootlets, from the ends of which grow 
hundreds and thousands of root hairs. These are like tinv hands 
reaching out for water and food. 

Plant Food from Soil. — But wliat is j)lant food? Why, it is 
the elements of which you learned in the chapter about The Soil. 
Some of these elements — nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, potas- 
sium, calcium, magnesium, and iron, in compounds which the 



38 



AGRICULTURE 



plant can use — are dissolved in the films of water which, as you 
learned, surround soil particles. 

Osmosis. — But the roots have no mouths or openings through 
which to take in food. How, then, do they get it ? The root hairs 
take it in by os mo'sis. That is the scientific name for the passing 
of substances through a membrane, or layer of covering tissue. 
By a simple experiment you can observe the working of this force. 
_^ Fill a small bottle with 



a sirup made of sugar 
and water, and tie over 
the mouth a piece of 
softened bladder or the 
membrane of the white 
of an egg. Invert this 
bottle in a glass con- 
taining clear water. In 
a little while the water 
will be sweetened by 




The bottle on the left and the glass on the right contain 
sirup; observe how the membrane covering the bottle is 
pushed out on the left and in on the right by osmosis. 



the sirup which osmosis causes to pass through the membrane. 
Reverse the experiment, putting clear water in the bottle and 
sirup in the glass; again the sirup is drawn through the bladder 
into the water. So, by osmosis, the water containing the dissolved 
elements passes through the membranes of the root hairs. 

Do you think that the hungry roots feed at once upon this sap, 
as it is called? No, it is not yet ready for them. It must be pre- 
pared for plant use, as our food must be prepared to nourish our 
bodies. The leaves are often called the stomach of the plant, 
because it is in them that the sap is prepared for plant food. 

How Sap Rises. — Do you wonder how the sap gets from the 
roots to the leaves? Osmosis, capillarity, and transpiration all 
aid in pumping it up. You can observe for yourself the working 



THE PLANT 39 

of these forces. Take a lily, snowball, or other white flower, and 
put the stem in a vase of water colored with red ink. The reddened 
water is drawn up through the stem, and colors the flower. 

Plant Food from Air. — We know that a plant absorbs food 
through its roots. This is important and necessary. If you cut 
off the root, the part of the i)lant above ground will die for lack 
of nourishment. But by far the greater part of its food — about 
ninety-five per cent — is derived from the air. Wonderful it is, 
yet true, that from the invisible air, to a large extent, the plant builds 
up its substantial body. The elements derived from the air are 
carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. Carbon dioxide, which 
is carbon and oxygen, is taken in by the leaves. Oxygen and 
hydrogen, in the form of water, pass down into the soil and 
are taken in by the roots. The nitrogen, in compounds pre- 
pared chiefly by bacteria in the soil, also enters through the 
roots. 

A Leaf. — Let us examine a leaf under ' a microscope. It is 
composed of cells which are as colorless as glass. Stored in these 
cells is a green coloring matter called chlo'ro phyl, or leaf green, 
which is formed from iron salts in the sap. Wherever there 
is greenness in the plant, there is chlorophyl, — in stems and 
branches, but especially in leaves. Chlorophyl can be formed only 
in sunlight. That is the reason a plant which grows in a dark 
place is pale and colorless. How much j)retticr is the green plant ! 
But the green coloring matter is not for beauty alone, though 
we may well believe this is one of the purposes of our Heavenly 
Father, its Creator. 

On the leaf, chiefly on the under side, are many little openings 
or mouths. Through these it takes in the carbon dioxide of the 
air. By the action of chlorophyl and of sunlight, this gas is sepa- 
rated into oxygen and carbon. Most of the oxygen is returned to 



40 AGRICULTURE 

the air by the leaf. The carbon is retained for food. But it is 
not used in its pure form. It is united witli the oxygen and hydro- 
gen of the sap to make starch and sugar. These substances form 
plant food. All parts of the plant — stem, branches, leaves, and 
root — are nourished by food formed in the leaf laboratory from 
elements gathered from the soil and the air. 

Need of Sunlight. — ^The two i)rocesses, the formation of chlo- 
rophyl and the changing of carbon, ox3'gen, and hydrogen into 
starch and sugar, cannot take i)lace without sunlight. The plant 
is like a machine run by a motor, the sun. All j^arts of the machine 
may be perfect and in readiness, but their work does not proceed 
unless the motor is in action. 

Need of Water. — Leaves perform otlier work besides taking 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ in and preparing food. It 

POTATOES 1.776 POUNDS rcquircs a great deal more 

■■ water to carry food from 

the roots to the leaves than 



i.aoe POUNDS 



1.049 POUNDS is needed by the plant in its 

growth. The surplus water 
is transpired, or given out. 

Amount of water used in producing one pound of v ^j^^ y^ ^^^ ^^ j.^_ 

dry matter -^ ' 

turned to the air. Experi- 
ments ])ro\e that a ])lant uses several hundred pounds of water in 
forming one pound of dry matter. 

Most ]:)lants thrive best when they have much sunshine and fre- 
(juent showers. In wet seasons, they suffer for want of sunlight ; 
in dry ones, they lack water. The cotton ])lant is a native of the 
tropics, and it loves warmth and sunshine. It does not thrive in 
cold, wet weather. 

Sap. — The food ])rej)ared in the leaves goes to all j)arts of the 
cotton plant. It passes through the soft, librous layer called the 



THE PLANT 



41 



cam'bi um, which is between the hard outer bark and the woody 

stem. It is diffused throughout the i)lant, and causes the cells 

which com])ose it to 

increase in size and 

in number, — that is, 

it causes the plant to 

grow. 

Cells. — If you ex- 
amine the stem, leaves, 
and roots of a cotton 
plant under a micro- 
scope, you find that 
they are made up of 
many parts of differ- 
ent shapes and sizes. 
These parts are called 
cells. Old cells con- 
tain water and air; in 
voung, active ones, 
there are water and 
a jcUylike substance 
called pro'to plasm. 
This is a very w^onder- 
ful substance. The 
wisest men cannot tell 
you what life is, l)ut 
bv long and ])atient 
study they have 

learned that the life of a plant or an animal exists in this substance 
called protoplasm. 

Plants of a low order, such as the l)acteria of which you will 




l',i n AMI I'.i ' 



i.>\ Plant 



42 



AGRICULTURE 



learn more later, consist of a single cell, a simple wall containing 
protoplasm. But plants of a higher order, such as the cotton 
plant, consist of many cells, connected more or less firmly. 

Flower. — Week after week passes. The leaves and branches 
of our cotton plant grow larger, and new ones are formed. It 
puts forth buds. These open into pale yellow blossoms. The 
pretty, graceful flowers are a delight to the eye. Of these, also, 
we feel that beauty is one of their purposes, though not their 
chief one. 

Let us examine one of these blossoms carefully. We find that 

it has four parts. These 
parts are made up of 
leaves changed in form to 
adapt them to the special 
work that they have to do. 
Calyx. — There is a cup- 
shaped green covering at 
the base of the blossom. 
This is called the ca'lyx. 
You will observe that this 
calyx is five-parted. These 
parts aie called se'pals. In some plants the sepals are separate 
leaves ; in others, as in the cotton, they grow together. The 
calyx is usually, but not always, green. 

Corolla. — The blossom cup is called the co rol'la. The corolla, 
like the calyx, is separated into five parts joined at the base. 
The parts of the corolla are called pet'als. Often, as in the cot- 
ton blossom, the corolla is more delicate in texture than the leaves 
and is different from them in color. The calyx and the corolla 
are the most showy parts of the blossom, yet they are only cover- 
ings for the necessary parts, the organs in the center. 




CoTioN Blossom 

Outside, showing calyx; inside, showing stamen 

and pistil. 



THE PLANT 



43 



Slainciis. — Next to the corolla are the organs called sta'mens. 
Each stamen is composed of three parts : the ftra ment, which is 
the stem; a knol) on the end of the filament, called the an'ther; 
and the line dust in the anther, called the pol'lcn. This dust is 
yellow in the cotton and in most other ])lants. 

Pistil. — In the center of the llower is an organ called the ])Ts'til. 
Like the stamen, a complete pistil is made u]) of three parts. The 
enlarged top is called the stig'ma. Below this is a stem called the 
style. This connects the stigma with the enlarged base of the i)istil, 
called the o'va ry. The ovary contains the o'\-ules, wliich later 
form the seeds. A grain of pollen dust falls on the stigma and puts 
out a thread finer than tjie finest thread of a spider's web. This 
grows through the style into the ovary, carrying life to the ovules. 
The ovules are tlien said to be fertil- 
ized. If pollen dust fails to reach the 
stigma, the ovules arc not fertilized and 
they do not mature into seeds. 

Boll and Seeds. — After a day or two, 
the corolla of the cotton plant turns 
pink. Then it shrivels and falls. Tlie 
ovary fle\elops into tlie fruit, or b )11, 
containing seeds. Larger and larger 
grows the boll, green at first, then 
turning brown. When ripe it opens, 
disclosing locks of soft white fib.'r. 
Wonderful as it seems, this fiber is 
almost j)ure carbon, like the coal we 
burn, il is made by the ])lant out of 

the carbon of the air. Its threads, single cells about an inch long, 
grow on the seeds. The boll has three or five divisions, each con- 
taining several fiber-covered seeds. To produce these seeds is the 




An Unoi'knki) Coiion 



44 



AGRICULTURE 



life purpose of the plant. As soon as they mature, its work is 
done. Its roots cease to take in food and water, its leaves cease 
to manufacture starch and sugar, and the plant dies. 

Annuals. — This is the life history of an an'nu al, such as our 
agricultural cotton, which lives only one year and produces one 

crop of seed. 

Biennials. — Some plants, 
such as the turnip, do not 
produce seed the first season. 
They make a part of their 
growth one summer, live 
through the winter, blossom 
and produce seeds, and die 
the second year. These plants 
are called bi en'ni als. 

Perennials. — There is a 
third class of plants called 
per en'ni als, which take still 
longer to make their growth. 
They live three or more years, 
usually growing in the sum- 
mer and resting in the winter. 
Perennials often b?ar many crops of seed; sometimes, as in the 
case of the oak, they are slow of growth and live many years 
before they bsgin seed bearing. 

It is an interesting fact that cotton is by nature a perennial. But 
the plant that grows in our field is an annual. It has been made so 
by the work of man. He has used conditions of soil and climate, cul- 
ture, and fertilizers to shorten its period of growth, and thus change 
it from a perennial to an annual. Later, we shall learn more of the 
influence of man on the development of our agricultural plants. 




An Opened Cotton Boll 



THE PLANT 45 

EXPERIMENTS 

I. Get large, simple flowers, such as apple blossoms and morning- 
glories. Take them apart so as to see the different parts. 

2- Examine germs and germ food in seeds. To do this, put large 
seeds, such as beans or corn, in warm water and let them soak twenty- 
four hours ; then sHp off the outer skin. 

3. Plant some grains of corn in moist soil and some in dry soil, and 
keep both in a warm place. What is the result ? What does this prove 
as to the requirements for seed germination ? 

4. Plant corn in two boxes of moist soil and keep one in a cokl 
place and the other in a warm place. What is the result ? What does 
this prove that seeds require? 

5. Plant some grains of corn in moist, firm soil and some in wet clay, 
of which the surface is kept packed and wet so as to exclude air. What 
is the result? What does this prove that seeds require ? Experiments 
3, 4, and 5 can be made with seeds put between layers of blotting 
paper, which is kept dry, moist, or saturated with water. 

6. Try experiments 3, 4, and 5 with growing plants, and observe 
the results in each case. 

7. Perform the experiment described on page 38 to show the working 
of osmosis. 

8. Put the same amount of water in each of two glasses. In one glass 
put a branch of clover or some other plant. Examine the two glasses 
every day for a week. What difference is there in the amount of water 
in each? What has the plant done with the water? Perform ex- 
periment 4, page 26. 

9. Cover green grass with a small board. What effect has this 
■covering on the color and growth of the grass ? Cover a branch of a 
plant with dark paper so as to exclude light. Examine in three days. 
What do these experiments prove about chlorophyl ? 

10. Pour iodine diluted with water on a piece of cornstarch. You will 
see that iodine turns starch blue. Take a leaf which has been uncovered, 
and one which has been covered, as in experiment 9; soak both in 
alcohol, and then pour diluted iodine on them. What difference is there ? 
What does this prove that the leaf requires in order to form starch ? 

11. Make a list of common farm annuals; biennials; perennials. 



46 



AGRICULTURE 



DIFFERENCES IN -THE PARTS OF PLx\NTS 



Main Parts of Plant. — You have learned from your study of the 
cotton plant that the main parts of a plant are root, stem, leaves, 
blossoms, and seeds. Each of these parts has its special work to 
do for the whole plant. The root supports it in the soil, and receives 



;^v 





Corn, a fibrous root; beet, an enlarged taproot; alfalfa, a long taproot. 
Root Systems 

and carries food and water. The stem and branches are channels 
through which the sap is diffused to the different parts of the plant. 
The leaves are laboratories in which the sunlight makes plant food 
out of the elements collected from air and soil. The blossoms con- 
tain the organs necessary to reproduce the plant and to continue 
the life of its kind on the earth. The seed is the result of the work 
of these organs. 

Taproot. — -The cotton plant has, as we have learned, what is 
called a taproot. The first root grows and enlarges into one main 
root with branch roots, rootlets, and root hairs. Among taprooted 



THE PLANT 



47 



plants are the oak, tobacco, and thistle. What are called root 
crops, such as turnips, beets, and parsnips, are biennials with 
taproots. During the lirst season, their roots store up food, in 
the form of sugar and starch, for the plant to use the second season. 




A Ci.iMiUNG Stem 

This California grapevine is probably the largest in the world. The vine yields every year 
about ten tons of grapes. 



Instead of drawing from the soil for the latter part of its growth, 
the plant uses this store laid up in itself. If you examine a turnip 
root after the plant has made its second season's growth, you find 
that it is a mere shell, almost empty of nourishment. 

Fibrous Roots. — Instead of a taproot, some plants have fibrous 
roots, a number of roots extending in all directions. These, also, 



48 AGRICULTURE 

branch and subdivide into smaller roots, rootlets, and root hairs. 
Cereals and grasses are fibrous-rooted plants. Sometimes fibrous 
roots enlarge and store up sugar and starch. Sweet potatoes, 
for instance, are enlarged fibrous roots. 

Weak- and Strong-Feeding Plants. — Roots difi'er greatly in 
their power to take in food from the soil. Some plants are very 
w^eak feeders. For them to thrive, the soil must be carefully pre- 
pared, and food must be near in available form. Strong- feeding 
plants have much greater power to collect food and require less 
care, though no agricultural plant will thrive on neglect. Wheat 
is a weak feeder and corn is a strong feeder, belonging to the same 
great family of cereals, or grain plants. 

Stems. — The stem bears the branches, with the leaves, blos- 
soms, and seeds. It is the channel for the sap. Stems vary greatly 
in appearance. Usually, as in the case of the cotton plant, they 
are stiff enough to hold the plant upright. Vines, such as the grape- 
vine and ivy, have stems which climb on some support. Melons, 
such as the watermelon, have pros'trate stems, which lie upon the 
ground. Sometimes the stem, or a part of it, grows underground. 
This is the case with Bermuda grass. The white, or Irish, potato is 

an enlargement of an underground stem. 
Parts oj S tern. -^In most stems there 
are a woody, fibrous matter, a cambium, 
or inner bark, and a thick outer bark. 
In the center of the stem of long-lived 
perennial trees there is a layer of old 
A while potato -an enlarged tissuc, or hcartwood, through which 

underground stem , . ,. , . 

there is little movement oi. sap. 
Girdling Plants. — If a plant is girdled, or has its outer bark 
and cambium cut off all around, the top does not wither and die 
at once, as it does if its roots are cut. Sap still mounts upward 




THE PLANT 



49 



through the wood, is changed to food in the leaves, and feeds the 
u]3peT part of the plant. But it cannot go below the girdled cam- 
bium to feed the roots. Sooner or later — in the case of a tree 
it may be several months — the roots die of starvation. A farmer 
often girdles in summer trees that he wishes to kill; they die 
entirely, root first. If they were cut down, the roots might still 
live and send up new growth year after year. 




An Ear of Corn, thk 'Silk' of which was not ffktilizkd nv 1'ollen 

FROM THE TaSSEI.S OF ANOTHER PLAN 1' 

Leaves. — You have learned that leaves are formed of clear 
cells containing a green coloring matter called chlorophyl, and that 
they manufacture food for the plants. Therefore you realize that 
the presence and health of the foliage are very important. If it 
bL' destroyed, as by disease, the whole plant will suffer and 
perhaps die. If crops are shaded by trees or weeds, the manu- 
facture of plant food in the leaves is hindered for lack of sun- 
light. 

Sugar and starch are stored up in some leaves, as they are 
in some roots. It is this store which makes the leaves of cabbage 
valuable for food. 

Underground Leaves. — There are underground leaves as well 
as underground stems. They are never green in color, because 



50 



AGRICULTURE 




Perfect and imperfect strawberry blossoms. 
The one on the left has both stamens and 
pistils, the one on the right has pistils only. 



the sunlight, which is necessary to form chlorophyl, cannot 
reach them. Bulbs, such as the lily and the onion, are thick- 
ened, underground leaves crowded together on a shortened stem. 
Perfect Flowers. — The cotton is a plant with a perfect flower, — 
that is, the blossom has calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistil. One 

blossom can fertilize and pro- 
duce seeds. 

Imperfect Flowers. — Some 
plants have imperfect flowers in 
which one or more of these four 
parts is lacking. Some lack the 
calyx, or the corolla, or both ; 
some bear stamens and pistils on 
separate blossoms. Did you ever 
think of the tassels and the ear as the blossoms of the corn? 
That is what they are. The tassels are the stamen-bearing flowers, 
and the yellow dust on them is pollen. The ear is the pistil- 
bearing flower and cannot ripen grain unless pollen falls on its 
silk, which is the ends of its pistils. Sometimes the pistil- and the 
stamen-bearing blossoms are on different plants. This is the case 
with the hop and with many varieties of strawberries. Pistil- 
bearing flowers cannot bear fruit and mature seeds unless they 
are fertilized by stamen- bearing ones. Plants which bear only 
stamens never produce seeds. 

Pollen Carrying. — One plant cannot leave its place in the field 
and carry its pollen to another. How, then, is it conveyed ? The 
two chief ways are by means of the wind and by means of 
insects. 

By the Wind. — Pollen is so light that it is easily and often 
carried a great distance by the wind. It is to prevent the wind 
from bearing the pollen of one to another, that farmers plant dif- 



THE PLANT 



51 




A bumblebee getting nectar and 
pollen from red clover 



fcrcnt varieties of corn far apart. If pop corn is planted near 
field corn, they will 'mix,' as farmers say, and grow alike. 

The wind is a very wasteful messen- 
ger. It scatters pollen on the ground 
and over other plants. Plants that 
depend upon the wind as their pol- 
len bearer need to produce a great 
deal. As a rule, plants with wind- 
borne pollen have small, scentless 
flowers, and light, dry pollen. Such 
are the grasses. 

By Insects. — Some plants de- 
pend on winged insects to carry 
their pollen. Insects, as you know, 
are busy little workers. They labor 

to provide food for the day and also for the morrow. They do not 
carry pollen for nothing. The plants pay them by giving food — 
nectar or pollen — and it is to get this that the insects visit flowers. 
The blossoms' gay colors or sweet odors are signs that they have 
food to give for pollen bearing. When an insect gets food from 
a flower, it is dusted with pollen. This is deposited on the stigma 
of the next flower that it visits. Flowers which depend on insects 
as pollen bearers do not pro\-ide as much as do those that depend 
on the wind, because it is carried with much less waste. 

By Hand. — Pollen can be transferred by hand, and this is 
one of the methods which is used to produce new varieties of plants. 
The blossom that it is desired to pol'li nate is kept covered to 
prevent its receiving pollen from any other source. Pollen is care- 
fully collected from another jjlant and put upon the stigma. By 
hand-pol li na'tion valuable breeds of wheat, oats, corn, and other 
agricultural plants have been obtained. 



52 AGRICULTURE 

Seed Sowing. — -To have their seeds sown, plants resort to 
many methods. Sometimes a plant scatters its own seed. This 
is the case with the balsam, or touch-me-not. If you touch a ripe 
seed pod, it pops and throws its seed some distance. Sometimes 
the wind acts as seed bearer. In that case the seeds are very light, 
such as those of the dandelion and thistle. Sometimes animals 
convey seeds. Those with hooks and burs, such as beggar weed 
and cocklebur, stick to the wool or fur or hair cf animals, or to 
the clothing of people, and make them unintentional and often 
unwilling seed bearers. Plants sometimes treat higher ani- 
mals as they do insects, and pay them to carry seeds. Berries 
and orchard fruits have juicy, fleshy coverings. These are used 
for food, and the seeds are scattered. 

Plants as Food Makers. — Seeds, as you learned, contain not 
only a germ, or little plant, but also a store of nourishment to 
support the germ in its first stages of plant Hfe. Some seeds, 
such as those of wheat, oats, barley, rice, and corn, are rich in 
starch ; these furnish food for man and beast. Some seeds, such 
as those of the poppy, flax, and cotton, are rich in oils ; they are 
used to produce oil for illumination, paint, varnish, medicine, 
food, and other purposes. 

Did you ever consider that plants are the only real food makers 
in the world? Out of inorganic material they form sugar, starch, 
oil, and other compounds, which they store up in their roots, stems, 
leaves, fruit, or seeds. From this source, man and the lower 
animals derive, directly or indirectly, all their food. 

EXPERIMENTS 

1. Collect and compare the stems, roots, leaves, blossoms, and seeds 
of as many agricultural plants as you can get. 

2. To see the extent of a root system, grow clover plants in a box of 



THE PLANT 



53 



mellow soil. Then remove the bottom of the box and soak the soil away 
so as not to break the roots. 

3. To see how biennials feed on their root-store of food, put a Chinese 
lil}- bulb in a pan of water in a sunny place. See how as it blooms it 
' eats up its own root.' 

4. Girdle a branch of a worthless tree and observe what happens. 

5. Watch flowers and see what are their insect visitors. Can you 
think of any reason why a bee is a b&tter pollen-bearer than an ant ? 

6. Examine strawberry blossoms to find perfect and imperfect ones. 
Keep a plant with an imperfect flower covered during blossom time so as 
to exclude insects. Does it bear fruit? 




ILI.USTRATIO.N OF EXPERIMENT 7 

The three plants on the left are from whole grains of corn ; the three on tlie right are from 

grains from which most of the germ food was cut. 

7. Take some grains of corn of about the same size, and from half cut 
off most of the germ food, being careful to leave the germ uninjured. 
Plant the grains and observe the difference in germination and growth of 
the plants from cut and uncut grains. What does this exjicrimcnt teach 
as to use of germ food and as to relative value of large and small seeds? 



54 



AGRICULTURE 



PL.\NT FOOD 



Plants' Need of Food. — You laiow that an animal must have 
food; did you ever consider that food is as necessary to a plant as 
to an animal? Every living thing needs food to keep it alive and 
to make it grow. Eut, you say, we did not feed the cotton plant. 
We did so indirectly. We planted the seed and cared for the young 
plant so that it could get food from its two great storehouses, the 
soil and the air. Sometimes, however, we have to do more than 
this. We have to supply to our crop-plants elements that they 
need, and in order to do this we ought to know what these ele- 
ments are. 

Chemists have analyzed plants and separated them into the 
elements of which they are composed. Thus they have learned 
what is needed to make them grow and develop. All of the elements 
w^hich exist in the soil are not necessary to plants. 

Necessary Elements. — There are ten which are necessary for 
plant growth. These arc oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, iron, 
phosphorus, sulphur, calcium, magnesium, and potassium. We 
cannot say that any one of these is more important than another. 
If the plant be deprived of any one, it will die. 

Air-derived Elements. — The elements oxygen, hydrogen, car- 
bon, and nitrogen are derived directly or indirectly from the air. 
They form about ninety-five per cent of the plant's body. 

The oxygen and hydrogen are taken in chiefly in the form of 
water. It dissolves solids, liquids, and gases, and carries food 
to plant roots. 

Carbon composes about half the solid matter of a plant. It 
forms a small quantity of the air, — only about one part in 
twenty-five thousand, — but the amount in the whole volume of 



THE PLANT 



55 



air is enormous. Great as are plant demands upon it, there 
is no danger that the supply will ever b2 exhausted. 

Nitrogen, which is necessary to all 
living things, cannot be used by the 
higher plants until it is prepared in 
certain compounds. Most jjlants 
get their nitrogen as nl't rates, com- 
pounds pre})ared by bacteria in the 
soil. A class of plants, called leg'- 
umes, can use the nitrogen of the 
air indirectly by means of bacteria 
which live in knots, called tCi'ber- 
cles, on their roots. 

In one way or another the nitro- 
gen, without which all living things 
would starve, is prepared by bac- 
teria. Later on, you will learn more 
about these bacteria. They are the 
smallest known living organisms, 
and arc so tiny that they are visible 
only under a powerful microscope; 
their very existence was unsuspected 
until recent years. 

Soil-derived Elements. — The 
plant derives from the soil only 
about five per cent of its food ; but, small as this portion is, the plant 
cannot live without it. The necessary soil-derived elements are 
iron, sulphur, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium. 
Of these elements, four — iron, sulphur, magnesium, and usually 
calcium — are abundant in most soils. As has been said, nitrogen, 
phos])horus, and potash sometimes exist in soils in limited quan- 




Roots of soy bean, showing tubercles, 
slightly reduced in size 



56 



AGRICULTURE 



tity. If present, they are often in forms which the plant cannot 
use. 

A chemist will analyze a piece of granite and tell you that it 
contains all the elements needed for plant food. But they arc 
locked up in forms which the plant cannot use; they are ' un- 
available,' wc say. The plant can no more feed on them than 
we can clothe ourselves in the cotton I'lbcr in the boll, or than 

we can make bread of unhuskcd 
corn. 

Soil Texture. — Even in soil well 

supplied with plant food, crops may 

^ __=g /«- -- ^ =r-^, I ^ot thrive. The soil texture may be 

\ '^^^ Is ^ ^fi unfavorable. You have learned 

something about the differences in 
soils and how texture affects rela- 
tions to water, air, and heat. You 
have learned also, thaj; these three 
things have an important influence 
on the growth of plants. You un- 
derstand, then, that while sand, 
clay, and humus furnish little ])lant 
food, they affect plant growth and 
crop yield. 

Each kind of soil has vegetation especially adapted to it. 
A sandy soil, if well supi)lied with plant food, is ada]jte(l to 
tubers and root crops; it yields up ])lant food fully and freely, 
and the growing roots easily pusli its particles aside. Clay soils 
are adai)ted to grain and grass crops and to other j)lants with line, 
fibrous roots that can make their way among the tiny particles 
to collect i)lant food and water. Certain plants, such as blue grass, 
thrive best in a limestone soil. The limestone region of Kentucky 




The beet on the left was grown in 
mellow, well-tilled soil; that on \\u: 
right was grown in rough, hard clay. 



THE PLANT 



57 



is often called ' the blue grass country.' Nearly all plants flourish 
on a mellow loam, because it is well supplied with moisture, 
warmth, and air. 

EXPERIMENTS 

1. Weigh a ])lant, such as cotton. Put it in the stove and let it dry 
thoroughly. Then weigh again. What has the plant lost? Take off 
the lea\'es and weigh them. Burn them and weigh the ashes. Weigh 
the stem, and tlien burn it and weigh the ashes. The ashes are the soil- 
derived elements. What difference is there between the quantity in 
Iea\'es and in stem ? 

2. Burn an equal weight of dry straw and dry tobacco. What does 
this experiment show as to the 
composition of plants ? 

3. Put some grains of corn 
in a bottle of pure distilled 
water. What happens as soon 
as the plants use up the store 
of food in the seeds? 

4. Put in another bottle water 
supplied with plant food in the 
following proportions : — 

Distilled water looo.o grams 
Potassium nitrate i.o grams 
Calcium phosphate .5 grams 
Calcium sulphate .5 grams 

Magnesium sulphate .5 grams 
A trace of iron sulphate 





The plant on the right is siipphed with plant 
food in the proper amount of water; the plant 
on the left has similar plant food in one fourth 
the amount of water. 



Put some grains of corn in this 
water. Renew the solution fre- 
quently and keep the bottle covered with dark ])apcr. Prei)are other 
bottles of distilled water, omitting one or more of these food elements. 
What are the results ? Use all the elements with one fourth this quantity 
of water. What does this prove about the oversupply of plant food? 
5. (\)llect legumes and examine tuljercles on the roots. 



58 



AGRICULTURE 



PLx\NT REPRODUCTION FROM BUDS 



Buds. — Plants are usually grown from seeds, but it is sometimes 
easier and bstter to grow them from buds. Every branch ends 
in a bud, and buds are also found at regular places on the branch. 
These buds which continue the growth of the old plant can be used 
to make new ones. A budded plant is sure to be like its parent 
plant, because it is a part of it. 

There are cases in which it is not only desirable, but necessary, 
to grow plants from buds, in order to preserve the variety. Some 
plants do not 'come true to seed.' An apple seed, for instance, 
instead of producing a tree that bears fruit like the one from which 
it was taken, is more apt to produce one resembling the wild crab 

from which it originated. 
Methods of Bud Re- 
production. — There are 
various ways of reproduc- 
ing plants by buds, — 
by lay'er ing, cut'tings, 
graft'ing, and bud'ding. 
In all cases the purpose 
is the same : to produce 
^'from a part of an old 
plant a new one that 
reproduces its character- 
istics. 

Layering. — In layering, there is used a shoot which grows from 
the root of the plant. Earth is placed over the stem of this, and 
usually the tip is left out to continue its growth. At first it receives 
nourishment from the parent root, l)ut after a while the covered 




.:$"<'' 



Layer of Grapevine 



THE PLANT 



59 



stem sends forth a root of its own. Then it is separated from the 
parent. 

Layering is an easy and successful way of reproducing most 
plants which send up shoots from the roots. Some plants, such 
as the raspberry, increase naturally by layering. 

Cuttings. — For cuttings, there arc used pieces of stem which 
contain one or more good healthy buds. These cuttings are rooted 






j^y 



A Dormant Cutting 




A Green Cutting 



in water, in soil, or in fine, clean sand kept warm and moist. 
Roots grow from the end of the stem or from the base of a bud; 
a bud sends forth a stem, which becomes a new plant. 

Sometimes the cutting docs best if it is taken when the 
plant is dor'mant, — that is, when it is resting from growth, as 
fruit trees do in the winter. During the growing season, nourish- 
ment is stored up in the cambium and at the end of the twig 
to begin the growth next season. The cutting from a dormant 



6o 



AGRICULTURE 



twig has this nourishment to help it make roots and growth of 
its own. 

As you learned, ^the white potato is an underground stem. 
When we cut and plant potatoes for seed, we use a method of 
reproduction by cutting, just as when we make a cutting from 
the above-ground stem of the grape. 

For some plants, such as geraniums, we use 
green cuttings, — that is, cuttings taken from the 
plant during its season of growth. At least half 
the leaves are removed, some being left to pre- 
pare plant food. 

Grajling. — Grafting, also, is a method of re- 
production by means of buds. In this case, 
however, instead of being grown in soil, the 
young plant is grown on the stem or root of 
another plant. Grafting has several advantages 
in the case of plants to which it is adapted. In 
the first place, it gives the new plant the benefit 
of a root system already established. In the 
second place, it has been found that certain 
plants are more vigorous and productive on 
other roots than on their own. In the third place, grafting can 
be used to modify habits of growth. A pear tree on a quince 
root is smaller, matures earlier, and is more productive than a 
pear tree on a pear root. 

Grafting is done by inserting a twig of the desired variety on 
the root or stem of another.- The plant food passes from the cam- 
bium of one to the other, and finally the two grow into one. 
Methods of grafting are described more fully in connection with 
orchard fruits, for which they are much used. 

Budding. — Budding is a method of grafting where, instead 




A coleus leaf cuttin 
rooted 




h' 



dl^ 



b, separate parts 



Grafting 
of the graft ; .-, parts united ; </, wax applied. 




a cutting off the bud ; b, stock prepared by a T-shaped cut ; c, inserting the bud into the 
stock ; d, the bud inserted ; c, the bud fastened in place. 



62 



AGRICULTURE 



of a twig, there is used a single bud of the desired variety. This is 
inserted into the stem of the plant upon which it is to be grown. 
Budding, also, is more fully described in 
connection with orchard fruits. 



EXPERIMENTS 

Try to grow some plants from buds. You 
may not find it easy to grow plants by grafting 
and budding, but layering and cutting are less 
difficult. Be sure that you try to reproduce 
the best varieties. 

1. Raise a strawberry plant and a grapevine 
by layering. 

2. Raise a white potato and a geranium from 
cuttings. Do you use a green or a dormant 

A budded tree from which cutting of the geranium ? Why ? 
the top of the stock has just g^^^j ^^^j fj ^^^^ seedling apple trees, 

been cut. . , , ? . r ^ , . 

usmg buds and scions irom a good variety. 

Do vou use green or dormant cuttings ? Why ? 

4. Why do you remove some leaves from a green cutting and why 

do you leave some ? 




TRANSPLANTING 



Transplanting. — It is seldom the case that we wish to leave just 
where we reared it the plant grown from a bud b}' layering, cut- 
ting, grafting, or budding. When it has a root system of its own, 
we usually transplant it, or take it up and set it in another place. 
If this be done with care, most plants will live. They develop 
more roots and flourish better than those that are not trans- 
planted. If transplanting be carelessly done, plants are very apt 
to die. 



THE PLANT 



63 



Rules for Transplanting. — There are a 
which give success in transplanting. 

First : The most favorable season should 
be selected. In the case of such plants as 
tomatoes and sweet potatoes, transplanting 
should be done when the weather is cool 
and damp, preferably in the late afternoon. 

Second : A plant should be transplanted 
when young. It is more apt to adapt 
itself to new conditions and make vig- 
orous growth. 

Third: It should be taken up so as to 
break the roots as little as possible and 
should bs kept moist and shaded. If 
the roots become dry, the plant loses 
vitality and may die. 

Fourth : It is well to cut off some of the 
top, especially of a tree or large plant. In 
taking it up, roots are unavoidably broken. 



few simple precautions 





The plant on the left was improperly set ; the soil is 
being pressed properly to the roots of the plant on the 

right. 

Fifth: The plant should be dipped in 
fertile soil packed firmly around its roots 



The celery plant to the left 
was transplanted; the one to 
the right was not. 

The root system is thus 
smaller, and it has 
to adapt itself to new 
conditions. It is unable 
properly to supply food 
to the whole plant. 
Therefore the top should 
be cut back to corre- 
spond with the smaller 
root and to give it time 
to reestabhsh itself, 
water and have moist, 
. This enables them to 



64 



AGRICULTURE 



absorb moisture and to begin as soon as possible to take food from 
the soil. Tlic soil should not be too wet, as wet soil around the roots 
excludes air. Unless it be very dry, it is generally better not to 
use water except to moisten the roots. If water be used, it should 
be poured around the roots before all the soil is added. If it be 
applied to the surface, as the soil dries, it forms a crust which ex- 
cludes air and hastens evaporation. 





Strawberry Plants 

The plant on the left is set too deep, with its roots bunched; the one in the middle is set 
too shallow ; the one on the right is set properly. 

Sixth: The plant should be set as near as possible as it grew 
originally. It will usually do no harm to set it a little deeper. 
But it is not apt to thrive if it be set much deeper or much shallower 
than it originally grew. The hole should be deep enough and 
broad enough for the roots to spread out naturally without being 
bunched or bent. The surface soil should be put in first, and then 
the subsoil, which is usually harder and poorer in available plant 
food. It is important to make the soil firm and compact, as it is 
put in, by trampling or pressing. 

Seventh: It is sometimes well to shade a plant for a few days 
from the hot sunshine, or to protect the roots by a mulch of straw 
or leaves, as well as of loose earth. 



THE PLANT 65 

Transplanting Crops. — There are a number of crops which are 
grown almost entirely from transplanted plants. Nearly all 
orchard fruits and most berries are so grown. Tobacco is the only 
field crop which is so raised. Some vegetables, such as tomato, cab- 
bage, and sweet potato, are raised in seed beds and transplanted. 

To transplant crop plants, the farmer usually selects what is called 
a ' season ' — that is, damp, rainy weather when the ground and air 
are full of moisture. In such weather, transplanted plants are apt 
to live. In dry weather, they may starve for lack of water before 
their root systems get reestablished, especially if the soil is loose 
and porous. If, however, the soil is too wet, air is excluded, the 
soil is apt to ' bake,' and the plants do not thrive. 

EXPERIMENTS 

1. Transplant a tomato, a pansy, and other plants, following carefully 
the foregoing suggestions. 

2. Transplant similar plants, disregarding in each case one or more 
of these suggestions. Compare the results and explain the causes. 

PLANT REPRODUCTION FROM SEEDS 

Budded Plants and Seedlings. — A plant grown from a bud is, 
as you have learned, a new plant produced from an old one. A 
seedling, or plant grown from a seed, is usually, made up of parts 
of two plants. The pistil of the one receives pollen from the other. 
From the seed thus formed, a new plant is produced. There is, of 
course, less room for variation in a budded plant than in a seedling, 
which may have the qualities of one or both of its parents or even 
of more distant ancestors. 

IMost of our crop plants are grown from seeds. Sjnce plants are 
apt to resemble those from which the seed was taken, the matter 
of seed selection is important. 



66 AGRICULTURE 

Good Seed. — For good crops there are necessary three things, — 
good soil, good seed, and good tillage. Of the three, good seed is 
easiest to secure, and yet it is the one oftenest neglected. Thou- 
sands of dollars are lost by farmers every year through the use of 
inferior seed. Thousands of dollars are paid every year for thoss 
which could easily bo grown at home. 

Selecting Seed in the Field. — The farmer should select the best 
seed from the best plants. To do this he must make the selection in 
the field. He must consider each plant as a whole, selecting those 
that are healthy and productive. 

Qualities to Consider. — If he gets his seed corn from the crib, 
he can, it is true, choose large, sound, w^ell-formed ears. But these 
may have been the only ears on the stalks on which they grew. 
They will tend to produce one-eared stalks. The crop from them 
will be smaller than that from field-selected seed, chosen from 
stalks that have each two or more good ears. It costs little more 
in tillage and labor to raise forty bushels of corn on an acre of 
land than to raise twenty bushels ; it costs nearly twice as much to 
produce forty bushels on two acres as it does to produce it on one 
acre. 

Seeds may be selected from plants with a view to certain qual- 
ities or products. We prefer sweet, well-flavored melons, and 
choose them even when they are smaller and less productive than 
large, coarse ones. By careful selection of roots which are richest in 
sugar, the sugar in a crop of beets has been increased from eight 
to eighteen per cent. 

Some varieties are especially valuable because they are vigorous 
and able to resist disease. In certain sections, only wilt-proof 
varieties of cotton and of cowpeas can be grown. Farmers sow 
rust-proof oats because they make a crop in localities where va- 
rieties not resistant are entire failures. 



THE PLANT 



67 



Earliness of maturity is another quality which it is often desirable 
to cultivate, especially in fruit and vegetables. An extra early 
tomato or peach is more profitable as a market crop than one which 
ripens a week or ten days later. 

Seeds, then, should be selected from healthy, 
j)roductive plants having the desired qualities. 
They should be dried carefully, stored in a dry 
place, and protected against extremes of cold 
and heat. 

Cleaning Seeds. — Seeds are cleaned by fan- 
ning or sifting them to remove chaff, dirt, weed 
seeds, and all small and immature seeds. From 
large, vigorous seeds a larger yield of more 
vigorous plants is secured. Seeds, especially 
purchased ones, should be examined for pii'ri'ty 
and tested for vi tal'i ty before planting in the 
lield. 

Purity. — Purity means that they are seeds 
of the desired kind, free from dirt, weed seed, 
and chaff. Seeds very different in kind can 

, ,., , . , 1- • The plant on the left is 

be readily separated. It is easy to distm- from, a light seed; that on 

guish beans from wheat, or black peas from the rigiit is from a heavy 

white ones. It is difficult to distinguish seeds 

that resemble those with which they are mixed, as chess, or 

cheat, and oats, — or very small ones, as some weed and grass 

seeds. 

Vitality. — Vitality is the ability of a seed to sprout and pro- 
duce growth. There arc many things which affect vitality. Age 
is one. The seeds of most agricultural plants will not germinate 
after they are a few years old. Seeds that are gathered before they 
are ripe have low germinating power. Those that are stored in a 




68 



AGRICULTURE 



damp place or that are exposed to great heat often have the germ 
injured or killed. 

Seed Plots. — All seeds for planting should be carefully selected, 
examined for purity, tested for vitality, and planted where they 




Ears of Corn selected from the Yield of the Same Ear 
The per cent of germination from the ear on the left is loo ; from that on the right, 50. 
* This shows the importance of testing seed corn for vitality before planting. 

will not mix with other varieties. For a garden crop or for one 
planted in small quantities, this is all that is necessary. 

For a field crop where a large quantity is required, it is 
usually best to have a seed plot. This plot, so placed as to avoid 
mixing with the field crop, is planted with choice seed and given 
most careful cultivation. From its best plants, seed is selected 
for next year's seed plot, and the remainder is used for field 
planting. The farmer w4io thus selects and raises his seed does 
not complain of its ' running out.' Instead, his varieties improve 
year by year, and the increase in quantity and quality of crop- 
yield repay his care a hundred times. 

Purchasing Seed. — It is usually desirable to purchase seeds, 
such as clover and grasses, which need special machinery to clean 
them and free them from chaff and hulls. 



THE PLANT 



69 



Plants that thrive in a certain soil or climate sometimes lose 
desirable qualities under different conditions. Certain varieties 
of tobacco are grown in the United States from Cuban seed. If 
home-grown seed be used even one (^ f^ H^ 

year, the fla\-or and texture of the 
leaf are changed. It is sometimes 
desirable to buy seed in order to in- 
fluence the ripening season of a crop. 
In a warm climate seed from the 
north mature earlier than home- 
grown seed of the same variety. 
Some Texas farmers buy cotton seed 
from North Carolina in order to 
have their crop ripen early before 
the Mexican boll weevil becomes 
most injurious. 

Losses by Impure Seeds. — In pur- 
chasing seeds it is always economical 
to get high-grade, well-cleaned ones 
from a reliable dealer. Suppose a 
farmer buys at less cost an inferior 
grade. Sometimes half or more of 
such seed consists of impurities. 
The farmer's loss is threefold. He 
loses the money which he ])aid out. 

He loses the time, labor, and money tube on the right shows the good seed 

spent in cultivating his field. He loses the profit which he might 
have gained. Moreover, he may have brought in weed pests. 

Home-grown Seed. — As a rule, it is to the farmer's interest 
to grow his own seeds. He is thus saved much unnecessary ex- 
pense. He knows the kind, quality, and age of his seed. He 



The tube on the k-ft shows one pound 
of Kentucky blue grass seed, as bought ; 
the middle tube shows the amount of 
dirt, weed seeds, and broken seeds ; the 



70 



AGRICULTURE 




avoids the risk of introducing new weed pests. He gets acclimated 
seed, which is in many cases an advantage. By carefully selecting 
seed from the best plants, he can grade up and improve a variety. 
Planting. — Depth. — • As you know, seeds differ much in size. 
This naturally makes a difference in the depth that they should 

be planted. Each 
seed contains a store 
of food to nourish 
the germ under or- 
dinary conditions 
until it can send 
forth its root and 
stem and begin 
growth. If the seed 
be planted too deep, 
this store is used up 
before the plant is 
well established. Sometimes the deep-planted seed cannot get air 
and warmth enough to enable it to germinate at all. 

Some seeds, such as wheat, come up with thin blades and slender 
leaves. These can make their way through the soil more easily than 
thick-leaved plants, such as beans, and so may be planted deeper. 
Soil Conditions. — Seeds require for germination a certain 
amount of moisture, heat, and air. They grow best when the 
soil around them is made fine and compact, not so close as to 
exclude air, but close enough for the soil particles to touch 
them and supply moisture. Gardeners often press small seed 
down with a board and trample the beds in which larger ones 
are planted, and farmers roll the land on which grain or grass seed 
are sown. They know that firmly- planted seed come up in a shorter 
time and produce stronger plants than those put in loose soil. 



A Liiw KNiENT Seed-tester 
It consists of a shallow box, filled with soil. It is di- 
vided into sections by a wire netting with one-inch meshes. 



THE PLANT 



71 



Time 0} Planting. — Seeds vary greatly in the amount of warmth 
that they require for germination; this requirement determines 
the time of planting. Cotton, for instance, requires much heat, and 
oats need little; so cotton is planted late in s])ring when the soil 
is warm, and oats early in spring or in fall when it is cool. Plants 
of the same family vary greatly in this respect. Corn and wheat 
both belong to the great cereal family. Corn requires much 
warmth ; wheat takes so little that it has been known to germinate 
on ice. 

EXPERIMENTS 



1. Save seed from your largest and from your smallest pansies and 
plant some of each in garden mold and in poor soil. Note the resulting 
differences. 

2. Examine a handful of 
wheat for impurities. 

3. ,Make a seed-tester. To 
do this, dip two pieces of flannel 
in boiling water in order to de- 
stroy mold. Lay one piece in 
a plate and put on it one hun- 
dred seeds, such as clover. Put 
over them the other piece of 
flannel and cover with another 
j)Iate. Add water when neces- 
sary so as to keep the flannel 
moist, and keep the seed-tester 
at a temperature of 70° to 80°. 
The seed will germinate in a 
few days. The ^number which 
germinate shows the per cent of 
vitality. Two pieces of wet blotting paper may be used for a seed- 
tester. The seed is placed between the two, and they are kept damp. 
Several layers of these can be kept in a shallow wooden box. 




A Small Seed-tester 
A, closed ; B, open. 



AGRICULTURE 



4. Fasten two panes of glass together by a wooden frame, as illustrated. 
Fill the box thus made with fertile soil. As you put in the soil, plant corn 
and beans close to the glass, at depths of four, three, and two inches, one 
inch, half an inch, and a quarter of an inch. Cover the glass with dark 
paper and keep in a warm place. Remove the paper e\ery day and 







Illustration of Experiment 4 

examine the seeds. What difference is there in the germination of seeds 
at different depths ? Which plants make their way to the surface from 
the greater depth, corn or beans, and why? 

5. Plant twenty-five morning-glory seeds in a box of fine soil and press 
them down firmly with a board. Plant twenty-five seeds in a box of 
rough soil and leave it loose. What difference is in the number and 
appearance of plants in the two boxes ? 

6. Weigh one hundred seeds of several different kinds, such as peas, 
clover, and corn. Put them in water and weigh again in twenty-four 
and in forty-eight hours. What difference is there in weight? What 
does this prove as to the moisture required in the germination of differ- 
ent kinds of seed ? 



THE PLANT 73 

PLANT IMPROVEMENT 

Origin of Cultivated Plants. — Our cultivated plants, as you 
probably loiow, originated from wild ones. These kindred of our 
lield crops exist still in many parts of the world, and it is interesting 
to compare the two. In appearance and in habits of growth, the 
wild and the cultivated plants differ as much as do savage and 
civilized races of men. For instance, the ancestor of most of our 
apple trees is a European crab. It is small and poorly flavored, 
very unlike the large and luscious fruits familiar to us. Hundreds 
of varieties differing in habit of growth, and in the size, color, flavor, 
and ripening season of their fruit have been developed from that 
insignificant-looking, ill-flavored crab. 

How have these wonderful changes been made ? It has been 
clone by years and centuries of care and cultivation, raising plants 
from the best specimens under the most favorable conditions. 

The Law of Heredity. — Changes in varieties are made by taking 
advantage of certain laws which govern all living things, both plants 
and animals. The first is the law of heredity, that ' like begets 
like.' Corn produces seed which brings forth corn, never by any 
chance wheat or rye. The. product shares the general, and, to a 
great extent, the special characteristics of the parent ])lant. If that 
ripened early, so will this; if that was sugar corn, this will be sweet. 

The Law of Variation. — You will notice that wc say that a 
plant inherits 'to a great extent' the special characteristics of its 
parents. It is just here that another laws comes in, a law which 
makes progress possible. This is the law of variation, the tendency 
of offspring to be unlike the parents. If the plant were in all 
respects exactlv like its parents, no im])rovement would be possible. 
Usually variations are not great, for the law of heredity is very 
strong. 



74 AGRICULTURE 

Selection. — Suppose that in a field of beans you find four plants 
bearing beans a little different from the remainder. One plant 
bears beans that mature a day or two earlier ; the second has pods 
a little larger than the others ; the third has better-flavored beans ; 
the fourth has more pods than the others. Suppose you save seed 
from these plants and keep and cultivate them in four plots. The 
second year you again select seed, choosing from the first the earliest 
beans, from the second the largest, from the third the best-flavored, 
and from the fourth the one bearing most pods. If you do this 
year after year, you will have four distinct varieties. By reason- 
able care you can keep them distinct, thanks to the strength of the 
law of heredity. 

Effect of Cultivation. — Suppose that in each case half your seed 
is planted on fertile, well-tilled soil and that the other half is 
planted on poor, badly-cultivated soil. You will find that on 
the fertile soil the improvement is great and the variations 
decided. On poor soil, the plants will have to use most of their 
energies to live and grow, and have little left for improvement 
or variation. 

Three Methods of Improvement. — What you learn from this 
experiment is what others before you learned by observation and 
experience and applied to the improvement of plants. The three 
chief ways in which plants are improved are by seed or bud selection, 
by cultivation, and by crossing and hybridizing. Crossing and 
hy'brid iz ing give us new varieties and even new species. A cross 
is a plant obtained by fertilizing one variety with pollen from a dif- 
ferent variety, as one kind of pear with another. A hy'brid is the off- 
spring of two plants of different kinds, — as a blackberry and a 
raspberry. 

Plant Breeders. — Plant breeders, by selection and reselection 
of seeds, grafts, and cuttings, and by crossing and hybridizing 



THE PLANT 



75 



new and old varieties, improve varieties of fruit, vegetables, and 
flowers, and create new ones. 

One of the most famous plant breeders of the present day is 
Mr. Luther Burbank, who lives in California. He has produced 
new species, among others the plQm'cot, a union of the plum and 
the apricot, and the 
pri'mus berry, a union 
of the raspberry and 
the blackberry, having 
the general appear- 
ance and combined 
flavors of both. 

Keeping up a Vari- 
ety. — It is not enough 
to originate a good 
variety. It must be 
kept good by care and 
attention. All im- 
proved varieties tend 
to deteriorate, or grow 
worse. They are arti- 
ficial products, and the tendency is to return to the state of nature. 
Scientists say they 'revert to type,' or go back to the character- 
istics of their wild ancestors. Farmers say the ' seed runs out.' 
In different terms, scientists and farmers express the same truth. 

Plant improvement can easily be maintained and increased. 
First: Seeds or buds should be selected from plants having the 
qualities it is desired to maintain. Second : Good varieties should 
be ])rotected against mixing with inferior ones. Third : They should 
be given such care and cultivation as suit them best. Plants can, 
to some extent, adapt themselves to unfavorable conditions of soil, 




Fnmi phiitogniph furnished by Mr. Burbank 

Plumcots 



'j^ AGRICULTURE 

moisture, and climate, but their most flourishing and most profitable 
growth is under favorable conditions. 

This work of plant improvement is one in which every man 
and child on a farm should take part. By selecting buds and 
seeds from the best specimens, a farmer should try to increase the 
yield and improve the good (jualities of every crop which he raises. 
Every child can make interesting experiments which may result 
in the development of new and valuable })lants. 

EXPERIMENTS 

1. Save seeds from balsams, or touch-me-nots, selecting and keeping 
separate the seeds of plants bearing the most and the least double blos- 
soms. If this process of selection be continued two or three years, 
what is the result ? 

2. Compare the wild onion with its relative, the garden onion. What 
changes have been made by cultivation ? 

3. Experiment with the cross breeding of corn. Use two good plants. 
Keep the ears of one covered with paper bags until you are ready to 
pollinate them. Then dust them with the tassel from another good 
plant, and re-cover with the paper bags for a few days. 

4. Decide on some change that you think will improve a certain 
plant, and try to make it by seed selection and cross breeding. Re- 
member that these changes must be in line with the natural develop- 
ment of the plant. 



OUTLINE OF CHAPTER THREE 

SOIL IMPROVEMENT 
General: 

Nature's processes and man's 
Drainage : 
Benefits : 

Gives plants more room 
Makes soil warmer 

Favors processes which produce plant food 
Makes soil workable earlier 
Prevdits washing 
Methods : 
Plowing 
Surface ditches 
Underdrains 
Terraces 
Irrigation : 
Methods 
Advantages 
Tillage : 
Benefits : 

Breaks and makes fine the soil 
Regulates soil moisture 
Admits air and heat to soil 
Destroys weeds 
Tools used 

In preparing land : 

Plow, harrow, roller, etc. 
In cultivating crop: 

Harrow, cultivator, sweep, hoe, weeders, etc. 
77 



yS AGRICULTURE 

In harvesting crop : 
Reaper, mower, etc. 
Methods : 

Flat, ridge, or hill 

Deep, shallow 
Crop Rotation: 

Disadvantages of one-crop system 
Advantages of proper rotation : 

Money crop and feed for live stock are raised 

Nitrogen-gathering crops prepare for nitrogen-destroying ones 

Drain on land is lessened by crops of different habits of growth 

Best use is made of manures and crop residues 

Weeds, insect pests, and fungous diseases are kept in check 

Land being occupied, plant food is not wasted 

Labor of men and teams is as evenly distributed as possible 
Green Manures; Legumes and Soil Inoculation: 
General benefits of catch, or cover, crops 
Special advantages of legumes 
Stable Manure: 
Benefits : 

Supplies plant food 

Makes food in soil available 

Improves texture and moisture condition of soil 

Warms the soil 
Value depends on 

Kind, age, and food of animals 

Methods of saving and applying 
Sources of loss : 

Escape of liquid matter 

Leaching and washing of rains 

Escape of gases in fermentation, or ' heating ' 
Composting 
Commercial Fertilizers: 
Rules for use : 

Depend mainly on tillage, crop rotation, and natural manures 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT 79 

Choose the commercial fertiUzers best and cheapest for soil and 
crop 
Nitrogen suppliers: 

Guano, nitrate of soda, ammonia salts, cotton-seed meal, dried 
blood and tankage, fish scraps, artificial nitrates 
Phosphoric acid suppliers : 

Guano, bones, phosphate rock 
Potash suppliers: 

Ashes, kainit, muriate and sulphate of potash 
Calcium suppHer : 

Lime 
Testing and mixing fertiUzers 




Results of Bad Farming 
This field shows the results of lack of rotation and of improper methods of cultivation. 




Results ok Good Farming 

This field, not far from the above, has been made and kept fertile by rotation of crops 

and proper methods of cultivation. 



CHAPTER THREE 

SOIL IMPROVEMENT 

GENERAL 

Past and Present Conditions. — The subject of soil improvement 
was little considered by American farmers in early days. Crop 
after crop of corn and wheat, cotton and tobacco, was raised; 
then fields were turned out to ' rest '; new fields were subjected 
to the same treatment. 

"Why not? "thought the farmer, if he thought at all on the sub- 
ject. He was master of uncleared forests and untilled valleys. It 
seemed no serious matter to exhaust the fertility, not merely of some 
fields, but of whole farms. To the wTst lay vast prairies, their deep 
soil unbroken by the plow. Foolish and extravagant, but natural, 
it was that the farmers should take the cream of this rich land. 

But, you know, if we keep on taking off cream, after a while 
we have nothing left but- skim milk. And from skim milk wc 
cannot make butter. Thus it is with land. If we keep on taking 
off the cream of its fertility, after a while we have poor land, and 
poor land is worthless for crop raising. 

Nor are farmers now able to move west and take up rich new 
farms in place of poor old ones. The country is settled, fertile 
lands are occupied, land values have increased. It has become 
necessary for the farmer to make the most and best of his farm. 
And it is not the number of acres which he owns, but their fertility, 
which brings him money and success and happiness. 

8i 



82 AGRICULTURE 

Nature's Processes. — How is a soil made fertile ? We have 
observed the processes of Nature. We have seen how they build 
up soil from rock. • Left to themselves, they usually improve it and 
make it fertile. Frost fines and mellows it, rain brings plant food 
from the atmosphere, and chemical changes make available some 
elements in the soil. Roots drink in food from the surface and 
pump it up from the subsoil; decaying plants give to the soil the 
elements thus gathered and others derived from the air. Year 
after year the barren land improves; slowly but surely it becomes 
fertile. 

Farm Methods. — But the farmer cannot wait on the slow 
processes of Nature, nor restore to the land all the fertility of its 
products. His business is to take from it once a year, or oftener, 
the richest of these products. Can he do this and not impoverish 
it? He can, if he will imitate and aid Nature. The plow can fine 
and mellow the soil more quickly than the frost; green and stable 
manures can improve texture and supply humus, and these manures 
and commercial fertilizers can add plant food more rapidly than 
do the methods of Nature. 

The farmer can take the place of Nature's reclaiming processes 
and protect his land against her destroying ones. By drainage 
and irrigation and tillage he can largely regulate the supply of 
moisture, and improve the texture of the soil and its relations to 
heat and air. By proper rotation he can lessen the drain of crop- 
ping. To do all this, he must work and work intelligently. 

The Ideal Soil. — The best soil for agricultural purposes is a 
loam containing sand, clay, humus, and lime. The sand admits 
air and water, the clay holds moisture and plant food, the humus 
absorbs and retains moisture, and the lime assists the decay of 
vegetable matter. This soil is ideal if it be rich in available plant 
food and has a well-drained subsoil. Most farm soils have not this 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT 83 

nature ; when they have, they do not retain it unless they are prop- 
erly cultivated. 

Improving Soils. — The farmer cannot change the character of 
a soil, but he can modify and improve it. There are three ways 
in which soils need to be cared for and improved. 

Texture.- — First : The texture should b^ attended to, so as to give 
plants the best possible conditions with regard to moisture, air, 
and heat. This is done by proper tillage and by applications of 
manures which supply humus. Humus is lacking in most of the 
' run down ' farms of the East ; it is abundant in the fertile prairie 
lands of the West. Lime, too, often benefits the texture and con- 
dition of land. 

Plant Food. — Second : There should be supplied the plant food 
which is naturally lacking, or which is taken out by crops. You 
know that there are three elements that sometimes need to be 
supplied, and that they must be in forms which plants can use. 
Nitrogen is used chiefly in the form of nitrates; phosphorus, of 
phos phor'ic acid; and potassium, of potash: all three are com- 
pounds formed with oxygen. 

All crops do not remove elements in the same amounts or the 
same proportions. Forage crops, for instance, of which the stems 
and leaves are used, need much nitrogen to form their luxuriant 
foliage; grain crops store up much phosphorus in their seeds. 
Legumes arc sometimes called ' lime plants ' because they use 
so much calcium, which is usually applied to the soil in the form 
of lime. Whatever is taken from the land must have its place 
supplied, or the land grows poor. 

Conditions jor Bacteria. — Third: Conditions should be made 
favorable for nitrogen-gathering bacteria. You have already 
learned that these tiny creatures in the soil change nitrogen into 
compounds which plants can use. These bacteria will not work 



84 



AGRICULTURE 



unless they have food, warmth, air, and moisture, and are protected 
from strong hght. In poorly- drained soils, there thrive harmful 
bacteria which consume nitrogen and make the soil acid and unfit 
for plant life. 

Common sense — and it is nowhere more important to listen 
to its voice than on the farm — will tell you that as soils differ in 
character, they need different treatment Each kind has its special 
natural defects and adaptations, of which you have already learned 
something. 






Clay Luaiii Sand 

The Texture and Relative Sizes of Soil Grains 



Improving Sandy Soils. — On account of the size of its particles, 
a coarse, sandy soil has little power to hold moisture and plant food. 
Elements needed by plants are often dissolved by rain water and 
leached or washed out. In dry weather, its crops suffe;r for moisture. 

What can a farmer do to improve a sandy soil ? If it bs not too dry 
and coarse, he can make it very productive, for it responds quickly 
to good tillage and fertilizing. It needs to be kept compact by 
roUing and other methods of cultivation. It needs to have its 
soil spaces filled with humus so as to enable it to hold food and 
moisture: this is best done by applying green manures and well- 
rotted stable manure. It needs to have its losses of plant food 
supplied bv application of manures and commercial fertilizers. 

Improving Clay Soils. — In a clay soil the texture is often too 
close. Water runs off its surface, and plant food and moisture are 




SOIL IMPROVEMENT 85 

not readily available in it. Its crops suffer from both wet and dry 
weather, — from wet because water stands on it and drowns the 
plants, from dry because water does not rise freely in it and because 
it' becomes so hard that roots cannot penetrate it. 

How can its faults be corrected? If it be low, it needs to be 
drained to remove surplus water. Then it needs to be made more 
open and porous by apphcations of lime, green 
manures, and coarse stable manure. It is espe- 
cially important for clay soils to be worked 
when in proper condition, for they are injured 
by tillage when too wet or too dry. They are 
improved bv being ' put down ' in grass, both 

" . . Clay soil plowed when 

to avoid tillage and to increase their store of too dry; it is hard and 
plant food. Clay soils retain manures and fer- cioddy. 
tilizers better than do sandy ones. 

Improving Loams. — A loam, especially a limestone loam, is 
naturally a good farm soil. It can be kept so by proper tillage 
and by returning to it the humus and plant food removed by 
cropping. 

Reclaiming Alkali and Swamp Lands. — On alkali lands, as 
you have learned, there are deposits of mineral salts. These salts 
are brought to the surface by capillary attraction, and the rainfall 
is not sufficient to drain them off. Such soils need irrigation, 
drainage, and deep plowing to free them from these salts. 

Swamp soils are generally of good texture and rich in plant food; 
if relieved of surplus water, they arc very productive. 

EXERCISE 

I. In the exercises under Drainage, Irrigation, Tillage, Crop Rotation, 
Green Manures, Stable Manures, and Commercial Fertilizers, there are 
suggested experiments which show methods of improving soils. 



86 AGRICULTURE 

2. Observe the methods used on farms in your locality. Compare the 
methods used by successful and unsuccessful farmers. 

3. Put a layer of salt about one fourth of an inch thick in the bottom 
of a pan and cover it with wet sand to the depth of two or three inches. 
Set the pan in the sun till the sand is dry. What do you find on the sur- 
face ? Put the top layer of sand in a glass of water ; let it settle, and taste 
the water. Put similar layers of salt and sand in a pan having a bottom 
of wire gauze over which is put a cloth. Pour water on this frequently 
and allow it to drain off. Then dry the sand and compare with the other. 
What do these experiments show as to the formation and reclamation 
of alkali lands? 



DRAINAGE 

Reclaiming Land by Drainage. — Nothing is of more importance 
to a crop than the regulation of soil moisture. If there be too little, 
the plants perish for want of water; if too much, they starve for 
lack of air to the roots. In low sections and in regions of heavy 
rainfall, one of the chief problems is how to dispose of surplus 
moisture. It is often necessary to drain these lands, — that is, to 
carry off the water by drains or ditches. 

Holland is a striking instance of the extensive and profitable 
use of drainage. By dikes and ditches, thousands of acres have 
b^en reclaimed from the sea. Their products every year are 
worth millions of dollars. Our government has spent over ten 
million dollars in dikes and jetties, to drain and protect the lower 
Mississippi Valley. 

Farm Drainage. — Farm drainage, which we are now consider- 
ing, deals chiefly with the removal of free, or standing, water from 
wet fields. In the eastern part of the United States, there are 
over a hundred thousand square miles which need drainage. 
These swamp and bottom lands are well supplied with plant food. 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT 87 

and need only to have the surplus water removed to make them very 
productive. 

Benefits of Drainage. — Let us consider some of the ways in 
which drainage benefits soils and crops. 

First: Drainage gives plant roots more room. The roots of few 
agricultural plants can penetrate airless, water-filled soil. x\s 
water is drawn off, air is admitted. The plants are not drowned 
by standing water in wet weather; in dry weather they have the 
advantage of larger areas from which to collect food and water. 

Second: Drainage makes the soil warmer. In wet soils a large 
part of the heat waves are used to convert the surplus water into 
vapor. On these cool, wet lands, plants grow slowly. Drainage 
lessens evaporation by drawing off the surplus water ; it also warms 
the soil by admitting air. 

Third: Drainage, by warming the soil and admitting air, favors 
processes which produce plant food. As you learned, bacteria 
w^iich prepare nitrogen for plant use work best in warm, rich, 
moist, well-drained soils. In wet, ill-drained land, bacteria thrive 
which destroy nitrogen and form acids injurious to crops. 

Fourth : Drainage, by drying the soil, makes it workable earlier 
in the spring. Crops can be planted earlier, and thus get the benefit 
of a longer, and usually of a more favorable, growing season. 

Fifth: Drainage prevents washing on light and rolling land. 
The particles of such soils do not adhere closely, and heavy rains 
carry away the plant food and even the soil itself. Have you 
not seen thin, unproductive hillsides scarred with gullies? Fring- 
ing these hills is often a rank growth of weeds and briers, which 
shows where their fertility has gone. 

Methods of Drainage. — Sandy and light soils are naturally 
drained, unless the water table is near the surface. Clay soils 
and those with clav subsoil often need artificial drainage. 



88 



AGRICULTURE 







Plowing. — Wet land may be drained to some extent by deep 
plowing. It should be thrown up in narrow ' lands,' or ridges, from 

twenty to sixty 
feet wide. The 
' dead ' or finish- 
ing furrows 
should be con- 
I nected by cross 
furrows running 

On the left is a tile drain in place; on the right is n section not yet g^ ^^ ^^ carrv off 
covered. 

the water. 

Ditches and Underdrains. — Where there is too much water to 
be disposed of by deep plowing and water furrows, surface ditches 
or underdrains should be used. All drains should be large enough 
to carry off the surplus water and should lead gradually to the 
lowest part of the field. 

Open ditches are cheaper, but less satisfactory, than under- 
drains. They carry off in the 
water much plant food and fine 
particles of fertile soil, and they 
interfere with the cultivation of 
land. Where it is necessary to 
use them, they should be brCad, 
with sloping sides, so that the 
farmer can cross them with his 
team. 

The best underdrains are tiles, 
tubes made of clay. They arc 
out of reach of the plow, do not 
fill up like surface ditches, and take off surj)lus water, wiihout 
carrying off fine particles of soil. Good substitutes for tile drains 




An underdrain made with stones covered 
with earth 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



89 



are made by digging ditches as deep as needed, putting in a layer 
of loose stones or brush, and then Tilling them with earth. 




Land Terraced to Prevent Soil Washing 



Hillside Ditches and Terraces. 
— Sandy, rolling land which does 
not suffer from standing water 
often needs to be protected 
against washing rains. It should 
be terraced so as to break long- 
downward slopes, or ditched wit 1 ) 
broad, shallow ditches whic!i 
lead gradually to the lowei 
ground. 

Hillside land should 1k' 
plowed dee]), and cultivating 
tools should run as near on a 
level as possible. It is often ;' 
good plan to put thin hillside- 
down in grass or to leave them 




Soil uabhiiig caused by luu rowing u|! and 
down a hill, instead of around it 



go ACxRICULTURE 

for woodland. The roots bind the soil together and prevent 
washing. 

As a rule, shallow plowed land washes most, unplowed land 
less, and deep plowed land least of all. 

EXERCISE 

1. Take two thrifty plants of the same kind and as near the same size 
as you can get. Set one in a glass jar tilled with moist, mellow soil ; 
set the other in a flowerpot of similar soil, with a layer of gravel at the 
bottom. Water equally and observe the results on growth. In three or 
four weeks soak the soil away, and examine the root development of 
each plant. 

2. Grow timothy and alfalfa in flowerpots. Set these pots in pails 
of water deep enough to cover their tops. Which plant suffers more 
from lack of drainage? 

IRRIGATION 

Arid and Semi-arid Region. — A soil may contain abundant plant 
food but be unproductive because moisture is lacking. This is 
the case in the arid and semi-arid region of the United States, 
which lies between the ninety-fifth meridian and the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and extends from Canada almost to the Gulf of Mexico. It 
includes all or part of the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, 
Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North 
Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Texas, Washing- 
ton, and Wyoming, — a vast region of three hundred million acres 
of land. The ocean breezes are deprived of moisture by the moun- 
tains and plains to the east and west, and come dry and parched to 
this Great Basin. 

Uneven Rainfall. — Where the rainfall is abundant or excessive, 
it may be so uneven as to allow the crops to suffer for moisture. 
In parts of Florida where the yearly rainfall is sixty or seventy 



SOIL IMPROVEMEiNT 



91 



inches, crops often suffer for lack of rain during the growing season. 
Droughts are becoming more frequent and prolonged in many 
of the eastern states on account of the destruction of the forests, 
which are Nature's reservoirs of moisture. 

Irrigation. — Crops are protected against scanty or uneven rain- 
fall by irrigation. Irrigation is a system of distribution of water 




Irrigating Alfalfa by the Furrow System 

On this western tield, alfalfa is irrigated after each cutting; there are sometimes as many 
as six cuttings a year. 

to crops, by means of canals and reservoirs connected with streams 
or lakes. Irrigation is not a modern invention. It was practiced 
in Egypt and in India thousands of years ago. When the Span- 
iards first came to America, they found Mexico and Peru irrigated 
by vast systems of canals. 

Our government is spending millions of dollars in irrigating 
the arid states. Much of this land was once a barren waste dotted 
with stunted sagebrush and cacti, the home of prairie dogs and 



92 



AGRICULTURE 



rattlesnakes. Where the hfe-giving water has been distributed, 
it is now fair with farmhouses, pleasant gardens, and fertile 
fields. 

Arid Soils. — The irrigated land of the arid states is very valuable 
for agricultural purposes. It is a light, sandy, or silty, loam, which 
absorbs water freely, parts with it slowly by evaporation, 3'et yields 
it regularly and freely to plants. Instead of changing, as most 
soils do, at a depth of a few inches to a subsoil of different character, 
it is almost the same for twenty or thirty feet. The soils in humid 
regions dry hard, with a surface crust; these arid soils dry loose, 
forming a natural soil-mulch. 

The wTather is a great and usually an uncertain factor in crop 
production. In irrigated arid lafids, this is not the case. The 
farmer turns on the water when his crop needs it, and the plants 
are sure to get the moisture they need, no more, no less. As there 
is no danger of rain during harvest season, grain is often allowed 
to ripen on the stalk; it is harvested by a combined steam harvester 
and thresher, -and carried from the fields in bags, ready for the 
mill. 

EXERCISE 

I. Fill a shallow box with dry soil. Bore a hole on one side near the 

center. Make a trench across the middle of the soil and pour water 

,^__ _^____„=„__™„==-^ slowly in till it runs out at the 

hole. Remove the soil next to the 
j^^: trench and see how moisture has 
spread by capillary action. This 
.?::J^^S"- is the principle upon which irri- 

gation is based. 

Illustration of Experiment i ' „ , r 1 1 

2. Do you know of any land 

that usually or often suffers from lack of water? Do you think it 
could be irrigated profitably? Give reasons for your opinion. 




SOIL IMPROVEMENT 93 



TILLAGE 



Crop Increase by Tillage. — On a certain farm the average yield 
of wheat was sixteen bushels to the acre. This did not satisfy 
the farmer. He was tiUing his fields as well as his neighbors, but 
he began to till them better. By thorough and proper cultivation, 
unaided by manures or fertihzers, his farm was made to produce 
thirty-four bushels of wheat to the acre instead of sixteen. How 
did tillage more than double the crop yield ? To understand this, 
we must consider the purposes and results of tillage. 

Benefits of Tillage. — First : Tillage breaks and makes fine the 
soil, thus opening it to plant roots. At first there is no close con- 
nection between soil and plant. Until it can connect itself with 
the soil, the young plant lives on the food stored in its seed or in its 
stem. If its tender young roots come in contact with clods and 
hard soil, their progress is checked or delayed. They have such 
a narrow area from which to collect food and water that the plant 
grows slowly or dies of starvation. But if the soil be fine, deep, 
and well-drained, the roots range freely to collect food and moisture, 
and the plant grows strong and thrifty. The finer the soil, if not 
too compact, the larger is the feeding-ground and water-range 
of the plant. 

Second: Tillage regulates the soil moisture. Rain, falling on a 
loose, broken surface, sinks in instead of running off. In fine, 
deeply-broken soil, water is held as in a sponge. This deep tillage 
should be followed by shallow tillage. As before ex]:)lained, a 
loose, dry soil-mulch on the surface prevents the esca])e of moisture 
by capillarity and evaporation, A well-tilled soil also absorbs more 
moisture from the air than a hard or rough one. 

Third: Tillage admits air and heat to the soil. You have learned 



94 AGRICULTURE 

how necessary air is to the roots of plants, and to the processes 
that form plant food from the elements in the soil. Tillage extends 
these processes to a greater depth and hastens the decay of organic 
matter. 

Fourth: Tillage destroys weeds. Weeds are stronger and 
more vigorous than most agricultural plants; they should be de- 
stroyed while young to keep them from depriving the crops of food, 

water, and sun- 
light. 

The Plow. — 
The plow is the 
first and the 
most important 
implement of the 
farmer. It cuts, 

, ^ „ inverts, and 

A Good Plow ' 

roughly pulver- 
izes the soil. It opens the land to frost, sunlight, air, and moisture 
and prepares it for the crops. 

Time to Plow. — The best time to break up land with the plow 
depends on soil, climate, and crops. As a rule, it is well to plow 
clay soil in fall or winter, especially in cold climates where the 
land freezes and does not wash. The texture is improved by it, 
and there are destroyed many harmful insects which winter in the 
soil. Fall plowing also lessens the burden and rush of spring 
work. In warm climates and on light soils, fall plowed land needs 
to be protected against washing, leaching rains, by a cover crop 
of grain or clover. 

Fall or winter plowed land should be cultivated as early as 
possible in the spring. This prevents loss by evaporation of the 
winter store of moisture, and enables the crop to get the benefit 




SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



95 



of it. If this moisture be allowed to escape before a crop is planted, 
the crop is apt to suffer in summer, especially on light, upland soils. 

Condition oj Soil. — At whatever season plowing is done, the 
soil should be in good condition, neither too wet nor too dry. 
When in condition for plowing, the furrow-slice breaks and roughly 
pulverizes the soil. If too wet, soil, especially clay, ' bakes,' 
or dries hard ; if too dry, it breaks in s., 
large clods instead of pulverizing. In 
either baked or cloddy land, much of 
the plant food is unavailable. The 
texture of the soil and its relations 
to moisture and plant food are often 
influenced for months by one day's 
plowing. 

Depth oj Plowing. — The depth of 
])lowing is determined largely by soil 
season, crop, and rainfall. As a rule, 
fall and summer plow- 



ing should be deep, and 
spring plowing shallow. 
Land in a region of 
scanty rainfall needs 
shallow cultivation. So 
does thin soil until it 
can be improved and 
deepened. Usually, 
however, shallow culti- 
vation means poor land, 




The plant on the left was grown in subsoil ; the plant on 
the right, in soil from the same field. 



poor crop, and poor farmer. On deep-plowed land, crops flourish 
in dry weather because they are stronger and have deeper root 
range; they flourish in wet weather because drainage is better. 



96 



AGRICULTURE 



As we learned, depth of plowing and direction of furrow do much 
to drain land and also to prevent washing. 

Some farmers work as if only four inches of the top soil be- 
longed to them and they were afraid of robbing some one below. 
If they would cultivate the soil well to a depth of eight inches, it 
would produce much larger crops at little more expense. 

A shallow soil should be deepened gradually, an inch at a time, 
until its depth is nine or ten inches. It is important that the 
process be gradual ; productiveness is lessened by bringing to the 
surface a large amount of the subsoil, because the plant food in 
it is unavailable. 

It is generally a bad plan to plow land the same depth year after 
year. The plow, as it lifts the furrow-slice, presses the soil together 
at the bottom of the furrow. In land plowed the same depth for 
several years, a hard, close layer is formed, called the ' plow pan.' 
This is injurious in most soils. The surface soil is apt to wash 
off, and the hard lower soil does not freely admit roots and moisture. 

Subsoiliiig. — 
The subsoil plov^ 
is one which 
loosens the lower 
soil and, without 
bringing it to the 
surface, opens it 
to air, moisture, 
and roots. Some 
good farmers ap- 
prove and prac- 
tice subsoihng. Others say that few soils require or repay the 
labor. They think that it is better to loosen the lower soil by 
deep plowing with large plows drawn by heavy teams, by under- 
drains, and by clover and root crops. 




A Good Subsoil Plow 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



97 




A Good Harrow 



The Harrow. — In the preparation of land for a crop, the plow 

is usually followed by the harrow or drag. The chief office of the 

harrow is to pulverize 

hnely the surface soil. 

It secures a line, even 

surface free from clods, 

prepares a shallow seed 

bed, covers seeds, and 

destroys weeds. 

The Roller. — On land which has been seeded in grain or grass, 

the roller often follows the plow^ and the harrow. Farmers claim 

that its use gives a bet- 
ter stand and larger 
yield. Rolling compacts 
the soil. It makes the 
soil-spaces smaller, and 
causes wa:ter to rise by 
capillarity. Thus seeds 
are better supplied with 
moisture ; they germi- 




too comj)act, the 



A Good Roller 
nate more quickly, and form stronger plants. 

Sometimes, to avoid leaving the surface 
roller is followed after 
a time by the harrow to 
admit air and to form 
a soil-mulch. 

Purposes of Crop Cul- 
tivation. — After the soil 
is prepared with plow, 
harrow, and roller, and 
the crop is planted, cultivation is continued with harrow, hoe, and 
other tools. Why do we cultivate the growing crops? 





m 




On the left the soil is compacted by rolling ; on tlie 
right the roller has been followed by the harrow, to 
form a soil-mulch. 



98 AGRICULTURE 

First: To keep a soil-mulch on the surface and to prevent, as 
far as possible, loss of soil water by evaporation. 

Second : To admit air to nourish the })lant roots and to prepare 
plant food. 

Third: To destroy weeds in order to prevent their robbing the 
plants of food and water. 

Deep and Shallow Cultivation. — The plowing and preparation 
of land should be deep and thorough. After the crop is planted, 
it is seldom wise to use deep cultivation. It dries the soil too far 
down and breaks plant roots. Flat, shallow cultivation is usually 
much better. The surface soil should be kept pulverized. 

Flat and Ridge Cultivation. — Good farmers say that the best 
tools for crop cultivation are cultivators and weeders with small 
teeth that leave the surface smooth. This protects the land against 
loss of moisture by evaporation and against leaching, washing 
rains. On cold, wet soils, hill or ridge cultivation is of advantage. 
As more surface is exposed, evaporation is more rapid. The rows 
between the ridges also act as ditches to carry off surplus water. 

Time. — Cultivation is most beneficial in the early stages of 
crop growth. No amount of care or work later can make up for 
neglect or improper tillage at first. In order to prevent the for- 
mation of a surface crust, a crop should be cultivated as soon after 
rain as is possible without injury to the soil. 

EXERCISE 

I. Lay off three plots side by side. In the first, break the soil to a 
depth of three or four inches, plant corn in the rough, loose soil, and 
do not cultivate. In the second plot, break the soil about six inches 
deep, plant corn, and cultivate three times to a depth of about four 
inches, as is done by some farmers who use a plow. In the third plot, 
break the soil at least ten inches deep, make it fine, plant corn, and 
cultivate the surface soil not deeper than two inches after each rain, so as 




Preparing fur a Poor Crop by Shallow Plowing 




Pkepaki 



N Deep Plowim; 



tore 



lOO AGRICULTURE 

to keep a crust from forming. Compare the growth and yield of the 
corn in the three plots. 

2. Just after you cultivate the second plot, carefully remove the soil 
from the roots of a plant in each plot and examine them. 

3. Fill one fiovv^erpot with wet, packed clay, and one with the same 
kind of soil in good condition. Set in each a geranium or other plant, 
and water and care for both in the same way. Is there any difference in 
the growth of the two ? 

4. Examine and compare the plowing of farmers in your neighbor- 
hood. Are straight furrows better than crooked ones? If so, why? 
What is the disadvantage of a very wide furrow-slice? of a very 
narrow one ? Why should the furrow-slice be inverted ? 

5. Compare the tools and methods used by different farmers in the 
cultivation of the same crop. Tell which you prefer, and why. 

CROP ROTATION 

One-crop System. — In many sections, as in the grain states 
of the West and the cotton states of the South, the one-crop system 
is practiced. Farmers rely on a certain staple for their money crop. 
In this, all available land is planted year after year. This cropping 
is continued as long as the land yields profitable crops — often 
longer. There are prairie farms wdiich have been in corn thirty 
years. Acres which once produced seventy-five bushels of grain 
now grudgingly yield fifteen, but spring after spring sees them 
plowed and planted again in corn. 

Generally, however, the soil will not bear this continuous crop- 
ping, and it is left out every two or three years to ' rest,' as it is 
called. The processes of nature to some extent restore its wasted 
fertility, but sooner or later its crops cease to repay the labor 
of production. Then the land is left to w^ash in gullies or to 
grow up in weeds and bushes. There are thousands and thousands 
of acres of this ' run down ' land in the United States. 



SOIL IMPROVKMENT lOI 

Disadvantages of One-crop System. — In nearly all sections, 
the one-crop system is being abandoned by good farmers. It is bad 
for the farmer and worse for the farm. 

The farmer risks everything for the year on the success or failure 
of one crop. On its profits he has to run his farm a whole year. 
A scanty harvest or a crop failure leaves him without funds for 
the expense of a second year. One-crop farmers are often poor. 
In the grain states of the West they mortgage their land, in the 
cotton states of the South they mortgage their crops, — and bear 
year after year the burden of debt. 

The one-crop farm, like the one-crop farmer, is often poor. 
Slowly or rapidly its plant food is exhausted and its texture in- 
jured by the constant drain of the same crop and the same methods 
of cultivation. 

If lands are to regain, keep, and increase fertility, rotation of 
crops must be practiced. This means that crops must be changed 
and must follow one another according to a certain system. Nature 
practices rotation. We see the place of field grasses gradually 
taken by pines; when the pines are cut they are followed, not by 
pines, but by oak and other hardwood trees. 

Let us look into this subject of crop rotation. 

Cotton as the One Crop. — Here, for instance, is an upland farm 
on which cotton has been raised year after year. The land is poor 
and yields a scanty crop. The soil is light in color and we find 
that it is lacking' in humus. No wonder. It never receives any 
vegetable matter except the stalks and leaves of the cotton, or 
what is left of them by the cattle that ' pick up a Hving ' in the fields 
in winter. Cotton is a rather weak-feeding plant, and it uses 
chiefly the plant food in the upper soil; some plant food is taken 
away in the cotton seed, and more is removed by air and water 
from the soil left bare during the winter. To supply these 



102 AGRICULTURE 

losses and keep on raising cotton, the farmer must buy ferti- 
lizers. 

He will tell you that his crop is subject to disease and insect 
pests, nor is it strange that they breed in the iields where the plant 
on which they feed grows year after year. The farmer will tell 
you that he has trouble about labor, too. He cannot afford 
to keep all the year as many laborers as he needs at certain times, 
especially during the cotton-picking season, and it is difficult to 
get them when needed. Probably he cannot tell you his exact 
expenses, but he knows that they are heavy and his profits small. 
In addition to paying laborers and buying fertilizers, often he has 
to buy feed for his horses and mules; these must be kept all the 
year, though they are not busy one fourth of the time. 

If you ask this farmer why he does not plant less land in cotton, 
he looks at you in amazement. He answers that he would like 
to plant more ; it is hard to get on as things are, and he could not 
make expenses if he planted less. 

Let us sec. 

Cotton in a Rotation. — The farm adjoining this has the same 
natural conditions, but luxuriant crops grow on its fertile soil. 
One important element of its owner's success is his well-planned 
rotation of crops. His tilled land is divided into three parts, 
or ' shifts,' as farmers call them. On one he plants cotton, on 
one corn, on one cowpeas are drilled or sowed. These crops 
require planting and cultivating at different times, and so there 
is lighter and more constant work for man and team. Oats 
are sowed after the cotton. The cowpeas are gathered and the 
vines plowed under, or the vines are cut for hay and the stubble 
is plowed under. In either case, the land is improved in ways 
which are more fully explained on page io8. On this land is 
seeded a winter-growing crop, such as rye or barley; this keeps 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT , 103 

the land from washing, and uses plant food which would other- 
wise go to waste. With the corn at the last working is seeded 
crimson clover, which is a winter-growing crop. 

The second year, after grazing the rye or barley in the third 
shift, the farmer plows it up and plants that land in corn, — sowing, 
as before, crimson clover at the last working. He feeds or plows 
under the crimson clover in the second shift and plants it in cotton, 
later seeding this land in oats. When he cuts the oats on the 
first shift, he seeds cowpeas on the stubble, and when these are 
cut or picked, he sows rye or barley. 

The third year he again changes the crops on his shifts. Corn 
and crimson clover come on the first shift, .cowpeas and small 
grain on the second, and cotton and oats on the third. 

The farmer is kept busy, but is never .so much hurried as 
his neighbor who raises only cotton, ^^'inter finds something 
growing on all the fields; the land is gaining instead of losing 
fertility. By change of crops and by plowing under green crops 
and stubble, humus and plant food are saved and supplied. This 
farmer has to buy less commercial fertilizers, and yet has better 
crops. Crop diseases and insect pests are less troublesome in 
his fields. He has plenty of feed for live stock; the hay and 
peas and grain he raises more than make up for his smaller crop 
of cotton. 

In the long run, it will be found more profitable to grow a crop, 
such as cotton or tobacco, once every two or three or four years 
on a field than every year. The advantages of crop rotation 
are so great that the farmers who give it a fair trial do not return 
to the one-crop system. In most sections the most prosperous 
farmers are those who practice rotation of crops. 

There are three kinds of crops which should have place in 
every rotation. First, of course, is the money crop to which 



I04 



AGRICULTURE 



I. cotton 
oats 


corn 
crimson 
clover 


cowpeas 
rye or 
barley 


2. cowpeas 
rye or 

barley 

3. corn 
crimson 

clover 


cotton 
cats 


corn 
crimson 
clover 


cowpeas 
rye or 
barley 


cotton 
oats 



the main place is given; this is usually the one which prevailed 
under the one-crop system, — tobacco, wheat,- corn, or cotton. 

Second, there should be 
grain and fodder crops to 
provide food for man and 
beast. Third, there should 
be at least one legume to 
supply humus and plant 
food. 

Principles of Rotation. 
— There are no hard-and- 
fast rules as to the crops in a rotation. Yet the rotation should 
be arranged according to definite principles so as to secure cer- 
tain advantages for the farm and the farmer. 

First: Crops should rotate so as to give every year a money- 
market crop. It is better if a farmer can have two or more money 
crops, marketable at different seasons. Of course, the main 
one should be a profitable one. To determine the profitableness 
of a crop, the farmer must consider not merely selling price, but 
cost of production and market condition. The cost of produc- 
tion includes labor and fcrtihzcrs and the demand on soil fer- 
tility. It must always be borne in mind, in considering the profit 
and loss of crops, that the elements removed from the soil must 
be returned in some form. Tobacco costs much labor to produce, 
and makes great demands on the soil for plant food which must 
be returned in the shape of fertilizers and manures. The selling 
price must be high to make it profitable. Hay and grass, on 
the other hand, demand less labor and remove less fertility; thus 
they can be profitably sold at a lower price. If live stock be sold, 
or still better live-stock products, such as milk and butter, little 
fertility is removed from the farm, and the chief cost is in labor. 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



105 



Second: Crops should rotate so as to secure most of their 
nitrogen from the air. This is done by growing legumes, such 
as clover and cowpeas. Their work in 
im])roving the soil is more fully de- 
scribed in the section on Green Ma- 
nures. More and more, farmers are 
realizing the importance and the 
economy of raising legumes, and so 
avoiding partly or wholly the expense 
of buying nitrogen in fertilizers. 

Third: Crops should rotate so as to 
have plants of different feeding capac- 
ities and habits of growth follow one 
another. The greater the difference in 
all ways, — growth, food needs, food- 
getting power, and methods of cultiva- 
tion, — the better. Food unavailable to 
plants with shallow fibrous roots, such 
as wheat, is pumped out of the subsoil 
by plants with deep taproots, such as 

clover. Thus the drain of crop-feed- CM.ne.y of Alabama Agricul...ral station 

ing is divided between soil and sub- i, rye after velvet beans; 2, rye from 
soil. DilTerent methods of cuhivation ^^n equal area, after sweet potatoes. 

required l)y different crops improve soil conditions. All soils need 
to be sometimes loosened, sometimes compacted. 

Fourth: Crops should rotate so as to make the best use of 
the residue, or remains, of the preceding crop and of the manures 
and fertilizers applied. Coarse manures are generally most 
valuable when applied to strong-feeding crops to precede and 
prepare for weak-feeding ones. Clover, for instance, is a strong- 
feeding plant and it makes good use of stable manure; it stores 




I06 AGRICULTURE 

up nitrogen and leaves plant food in the surface soil. It is there- 
fore valuable to precede a weak-feeding plant, such as wheat. 
Tobacco is another good crop to precede wheat. It is a tap- 
rooted plant and it leaves the soil in a good condition for the 
fibrous-rooted cereal. 

Fifth : Crops should rotate so as to keep in check weeds and 
insect pests and fungous diseases. Certain weeds and insects 
flourish on certain crops. Moreover, plants grown a long period 
on the same soil lose vigor and ability to resist their enemies. 
These enemies are checked or destroyed by rotation of crops. 
Sometimes it is necessary to plan or change a rotation so as to 
reclaim land from these pests. Farmers change their crops and 
their methods of cultivation to check wilt diseases and weevils. By 
rotation of crops, lands can be freed of cattle ticks, so injurious 
to stock in the South. 

Sixth: Crops should rotate so as to furnish abundance of 
food for all live stock kept on the farm. When the farmer buys 
feed, he has to pay not only the cost of production, but the 
producer's profit and the cost of marketing and transportation. 

Seventh: Crops should rotate so as to keep land occupied. 
• If a rriarket or food crop is not being grown, there should be 
a catch, or cover, crop on the land. This will save and increase 
plant food, supply humus, and prevent the w'ashing and leach- 
ing which cause far more loss of fertility than does cropping. 
Sandy soils and rolling land should never be left bare in winter. 
It is better for the farmer and the farm for them to be kept busy 
producing fertility to feed the next season's crops. 

Eighth: Crops should rotate so as to secure for men and teams 
as even distribution of labor as possible. Where this is not done, 
labor is more expensive and more unsatisfactory. In the great 
wheat region of the West, work is constant and hard for two 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT 10/ 

or three months, then ceases almost entirely. There most un- 
satisfactory labor conditions prevail. 

Some Good Rotations. — A favorite three-year rotation where 
wheat and root crops are grown is wheat, clover, rye, and pota- 
toes. The wheat and clover are seeded in the fall. The wheat 
is cut the next summer, and the clover stands two years. The 
clover is followed by a winter cover crop of oats or rye which 
is grazed and followed by potatoes. 

Where cotton or tobacco is the main crop, a good three-year 
rotation is the one described, — corn and crimson clover, cotton 
or tobacco, small grain, and cowpeas or soy beans. 

A good four-year rotation is clover, wheat, and tobacco; in 
this the clover stands two years. Another four-year rotation 
is potatoes, oats, clover, and wheat. A five-year rotation which 
includes small fruits is corn, wheat and cowpeas, early potatoes 
and beans, and strawberries for two years. 

Where dairy-farming and market-gardening are practiced, 
manures and fertilizers are largely relied on instead of crop 
rotation. 

EXERCISE 

1. Plan a rotation to bring in the staple crop of your section with re- 
gard to the principles explained. 

2. Plan a rotation to bring in sweet potatoes as chief crop on sandy 
soil ; tobacco as chief crop on loam ; hay as chief crop on clay soil. 

3. Plan a rotation to improve a clay soil that lacks humus; one 
to improve a thin, sandy soil. 

4. Set aside two plots of equal size. Divide one into three parts 
and cultivate on it the crops in one of the three-year rotations described. 
On the other plot grow for three years the main crop in the same ro- 
tation. 

5. Write an exercise on "crop rotation," illustrating it from your 
observation of the farms of your neighborhood. 



108 AGRICULTURE 



GREEN MANURES; LEGUMES AND SOIL 
INOCULATION 

Green Crops. — Green manures are crops, such as rye, cow- 
peas, and clover, plowed under when green to improve land. 
Sometimes the green crop is grazed or fed to stock or cut for 
hay, and the stubble is plowed under to improve the land. These 
crops benefit the soil's texture and moisture conditions, add 
humus and some plant food, and make available much food 
already in the soil. Humus is especially needed by light soils 
in humid climates. Without it, they never produce good crops. 
Usually, the cheapest way to get it is to grow it on the fields where 
it is needed. A soil is kept well supplied with it by proper rotation 
of crops and by stock raising. 

'Catch,' or 'cover' crops, as these are called, may often be 
grown without interfering with other crops in a rotation. They 
keep the land from becoming infested with weeds in summer, 
and in winter they prevent the washing away of soil and the 
leaching out of plant food. Cowpeas is an excellent summer 
crop to follow small grain, such as wheat or oats. Where it 
thrives, crimson clover is an excellent winter crop. It can be 
seeded alone, or in such crops as corn, cotton, and tobacco, when 
they are worked the last time; in spring it may be cut or plowed 
under and the land planted in corn or other crops. 

Legumes. — Both cowpeas and crimson clover are legumes, 
which are the best green crops for soil improvement. What arc 
legumes, and how do they benefit the soil more than other plants ? 

Legumes, or pod-bearing plants, include cowpeas, vetches, 
beans, peanuts, al fal'fa, and the clovers. They are valuable as 
humus suppliers and as forage crops, but their greatest value lies 





In the flowerpots on the left is wheat supplied, first, \\ith potash ; second, with potash 
and phosphoric acid; third, with potash, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen. The tubes below 
show the relative yield of grain. 

In the flowerpots on the right is vetch supplied, first, with potash ; second, with potash 
and phosphoric acid ; third, with potash, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen. The tubes below 
show the relative yield of seed. 



>i I 



Ml 



1^ 



I i 







IKKIILIZI.NG E.Xl'EKI.MENT WITH WlIEAT AND VETCH 



no AGRICULTURE 

in the fact that they are nitrogen-gatherers. Nitrogen is a costly and 
scarce element of plant food, costing, in commercial form, about 
sixteen cents a pound. An average crop of peas or clover adds 
about one hundred and fifty pounds of nitrogen to each acre of soil. 

Free Nitrogen. — Where do the plants get it ? From the 
air. Over every acre of soil there are more than three thousand 
tons of free nitrogen. This is of no service to crops, such as 
the cereals, which have no power to use nitrogen until it is changed 
into certain compounds. With vast quantities of nitrogen around 
it, a plant may starve, just as a sailor may perish of thirst with 
the great ocean surrounding him. Nitrogen is there, water is 
there, but not in forms available to the plant and the man. 

Tubercles. — Legumes, however, feed indirectly on this free 
nitrogen by means of certain forms of bacteria, which live in 
knots, called tubercles, on their roots. The decay of the tuber- 
cles leaves nitrogen in the soil. On different legumes and under 
different conditions these tubercles vary from the size of a tiny 
pin head to that of an egg. They are thought to be rootlets, 
changed in form by thousands and millions of bacteria. 

Bacteria in Soils. — In soils where legumes have been culti- 
vated, these bacteria are abundant. Where legumes have not 
been grown, they are apt to be lacking. In that case the legumes 
will produce a smaller crop and the soil will be less enriched. 
The bacteria increase rapidly, and often legumes thrive the second 
year on land where they failed the first. Bacteria may be sup- 
plied by sprinkling land with soil from a field on which has been 
grown the legume desired; soil from an alfalfa field must be 
used for alfalfa, from pea land for peas, and so on. Sprinkling 
the soil, or in oc'u lat ing it, as it is called, with soil from another 
field is troublesome and often inconvenient; it often introduces 
weeds and insect pests and fungous diseases. 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT III 

Pure Culture of Nitrogen. — After many experiments by scientists, 
a method has been discovered of growing these bacteria, so as to 
give legumes a start on land where they have not been cultivated. 

This is done by means of what is called a ' pure culture ' of 
nitrogen; it supplies bacteria raised under conditions that make 
them depend upon the air instead of the soil for their supply of 
nitrogen. This ' pure culture ' is applied to the seed or to the soil. 
It is similar in action to a yeast cake, and like yeast the bacteria 
must be raised carefully according to directions. 

The practical value of this method is doubted by many 
scientists. Certainly it is not enough to inoculate the seed or the 
soil. The soil should be well prepared, and there should be 
supplied mineral food, — potash and phosphoric acid, and hme 
if the soil is acid. If these elements be furnished in abundance, 
the legumes make a rank growth. 

EXPERIMENTS 

1. Obtain the 'pure culture' from the Department of Agriculture 
or from your State Agricultural Experiment Station, and experiment 
with it. Fill two boxes with quartz 
sand which has been heated red- 
hot in order to burn out nitrates. 
Supply both with potash and phos- 
phoric acid. Plant wheat in one, 
and in the other plant peas inoc- 
ulated with the ' pure culture.' 
What happens to each when the 
nitrogen stored in the seed is ex- 
hausted ? At the left, crimson clover on uninoculated 

2. Plant crimson clover seed in a soil; at the right, crimson clover on inocu- 
paper box of soil from a field ^^^^^ ^°''- 

in which clover has been grown. When the plant blooms, put the box 
in water and soak the soil from the roots ; examine the tubercles. 




112 



AGRICULTURE 




Cross Section of Hotbed 



STABLE MANURE 

Benefits of Manure. — ■ Stable manure is the liquid and solid 
excrement of farm animals. We find the richest farms and 
the most prosperous farmers where stock raising is practiced and 
the manure is propei'ly saved and utilized. 

Stable manure increases the supply of plant food in the soil. It 
does this directly by supplying some elements, — nitrogen, potash, 
phosphoric acid, and lime, — and it does it indirectly by helping 

to change into available forms some un- 
available elements. 

It also improves the condition of the 
soil, binding together sandy soil and 
loosening clay. It enables a soil to re- 
tain more water and to yield it more 
fully and more gradually to plant roots. By the heat which it 
gives out in decaying and also by the heat which it absorbs from 
the air, it warms the soil. It does this to such an extent that 
' hotbeds ' of manure are used to hasten the germination of seeds 
and growth of plants. 

Value of Manure. — The value of manure depends on the kind 
of animals which produce it, 
their age and food, the methods 
of saving and applying it. As 
a rule, the more concentrated 
the food of an animal, the more 
concentrated, and hence the 
more valuable, is the manure. 
The manure from poultry, hogs, 
and horses, which are fed concentrated foods, is more valuable 
than cow manure, which is produced chiefly from coarse, bulky 




Hotbed, in which Plants are Growing 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



113 



foods. Under good management, eighty per cent of the fertihiy in 
food can be returned to the soil in manure. The manure from 
old animals is more valuable than that of young ones, because 
growing animals retain more of the fertilizing elements, especially 
nitrogen, to build up their bodies. 

VALUE OF MANURE, ANNUALLY, OF FARM ANIMALS 



Produced 



Saved by Average Farmer 



Horse 
Cow . 
Hog . 
Sheep 



«; 



J27.00 

19.00 

12.00 

2.00 



$10.00 
6.00 
4.00 

■75 



Manure yields about one fourth of its value the first season. Its 
effects are more lasting than commercial fertilizers, which give up 
from one half to three fourths of their value the first season. 

Sources of Loss. — Manure often loses half or more of its value 
from lack of proper care. There are three sources of loss. 




Loss OF Manure by Exposure 

The maniife on this farm loses more than half its value before it is applied to the land. 
Refer to the text and explain how and why this happens. 

First: Manure loses by the escape of the liquid matter. This 
is more valuable than the soUd matter, as it contains nearly all 



114 AGRICULTURE 

the nitrogen and some of the phosphoric acid and potash. Its 
loss may be prevented by the use of the proper quantity and 
kind of absorbents, such as straw or leaves, to catch and retain it. 

Second: Manure loses by exposure to rain. The lic{uid and 
some of the elements of the solid matter are leached and washed 
out. In manure exposed for several months to the weather, 
the loss of nitrogen and potash may amount to more than one 
half. When it is not desired to apply manure at once, it should 
be piled under cover or composted and kept moist. 

Third: Manure loses through the escape of gases in fermenta- 
tion, or ' heating ' as it is called from the heat produced and 
given off in the process of decay. Fermentation is caused by 
the action of bacteria. If they are allowed to work unchecked, 
they set free in gases the most valuable elements of the manure. 
The process of fermentation can be checked by mixing the manure 
of different kinds of animals and by keeping the mass moist 
and well packed. When it is kept moist, the heat, instead of 
causing fermentation, is spent in evaporation; when it is well 
packed and trampled, fermentation is checked by lack of air. 
Manure is imprpved by fermentation if it be protected against 
loss of nitrogen. , 

Composting Manure. — Farmers often compost manure. This 
is done by making a heap composed of alternate layers of manure 
and of weeds, leaves, etc. The whole is put u}) in a cone-shaped 
heap to protect it against rain, and covered with a layer of dry 
earth to absorb gases. It needs to be occasionally repiled and 
wet thoroughly to keep in check the process of fermentation. 

Where labor is scarce, it is often better to haul manure directly 
to the field where it is to be used, and to scatter it upon the 
land so as to let its fertilizing elements be embodied in the 
surface soil. 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT II5 

EXPERIMENT 

Fertilize a row in your garden with stable manure that has been pro- 
tected against loss by leaching, washing, and heating. Fertilize another 
row with the same amount of the same kind of manure that has been ex- 
posed to the weather. Plant both rows in corn and cultivate in the same 
way. What difference do you observe ? 

COIVIMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 

Crop Removal of Plant Food. — Perhaps you have heard a farmer 
say, "That crop has taken a great deal out of the land." That is 
literally true. In the case of abundant elements, such as iron, 
it is a matter of no importance; there is always enough left. But 
you Icnow there are some elements which are scarce in available 
forms. The phosphoric acid, nitrogen, and potash removed by 
crops must be replaced if the soil is to continue productive. 

Supplying Elements Needed. — Much plant food can be supplied 
and made available by deep and thorough cultivation, by proper 
rotation of crops, and by raising legumes. For crops which make 
large demands on soil fertility and in order to give proper balance 
of plant food, a farmer sometimes finds it desirable to supply some 
elements in concentrated, readily available forms. For these pur- 
poses, he uses commercial fertihzers. By their wise use, farmers 
gain thousands of dollars; by their unwise use, they lose more. 

Commercial Fertilizers. — What arc the sources of these com- 
mercial fertilizers ? Some are obtained from vast natural deposits 
in Germany, South America, the United States, and other countries. 
Others are the by-products of certain manufactures, such as gas 
from coal, and oil from cotton seed. 

They contain plant food in a more concentrated and more 
directly available form than it exists in green and stable manures. 



ii6 



AGRICULTURE 



They are rarely so cheap or so good for the soil as natural 
manures; some injure soil-texture and water-holding power. INIost 
of them, indeed, are crop stimulants rather than soil improvers. 

Rules for Use. — Two rules should govern the farmer's use of 
commercial fertilizers. 

First: To enrich his soil and increase his crop, he should depend 
chiefly on tillage, rotation of crops, and natural manures. 




Grass on Fertilized and Unfertilized Land 

This grass was sowed in September. The field on the left received no further care ; that 
on the right had in the spring a top dressing of 250 lb. of muriate of soda and 250 lb. of 
nitrate of soda to the acre, at a cost of ^18.68. The manured crop yielded 6,567 lb. of 
cured hay to the acre; the unmanured yielded 1,284 lt>. The hay sold for ^16.00 a ton. 
What was the profit from the use of the fertilizer? 

Second: He should supplement these with the proper amount 
of the commercial fertilizers that experience proves best and cheap- 
est for his soil and his crops. 

Guano. — One cf the best commercial fertilizers , is guano 
(gwa'no), which is especially rich in nitrogen and phosphoric 
acid. Guano is the manure and remains of fish-eating sea fowls. 
For countless centuries these birds frequented the rocky islands off 
the Pacific coast of South America. There they hatched and reared 
their young. Their manure and dead bodies accumulated, and in 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT 1 17 

that rainless; tropical climate the moisture evaporated, leaving 
the fertilizing elements uninjured. The ancient Peruvians knew 
the value of these deposits, and protected the sea fowls and their 
homes. It was forbidden under penalty of death to kill the birds 
or even to set foot on the islands during the breeding season. 

About eighty years ago the first cargo of guano was sent to Eng- 
land, and experiments proved that it had a wonderful effect on 
crop production. Millions of tons were shipped until the best beds 
were exhausted. Deposits have been found in other places, but 
none so rich in nitrogen as the old beds off the Peruvian coast. 

Nitrogen. — For soil nitrogen, a farmer should rely chiefly on 
raising legumes, on proper rotation of crops, on stock raising and 
the use of manures, and on deep plowing and thorough cultivation; 
thus bacteria supply the soil with nitrogen. 

The chief commercial forms of nitrogen are: guano; nitrate of 
soda, which is a vast natural deposit in rainless districts of South 
America ; sulphate of ammonia, which is obtained as a by-product 
in the manufacture of illuminating gas from coal and from other 
sources ; cotton-seed meal, which is a by-product of the manufacture 
of cotton-seed oil ; dried blood and tankage, which are by-products 
from slaughter houses; dried fish and fish scraps, which arc by- 
products of fish-oil factories and canneries. 

The value of fish as a fertilizer .was known to our American 
Indians. You remember that Scjuanto taught the New Eng- 
land settlers that they could increase the yield of corn by putting 
a fish under each hill. This gave the grain the two elements it 
needed most — phosphoric acid and nitrogen. 

Commercial nitrogen was until recently obtained entirely from 
natural deposits and products. Artificial nitrates are now being 
made by the use of electric furnaces. By these the nitrogen and 
oxygen of the air are made to unite, forming nitric acid. 



Il8 AGRICULTURE 

Phosphoric Acid. — Many soils contain phosphorus in forms 
unavailable to plants; these soils need thorough tillage, and stable 
manure and lime to combine with the phosphates and form phos- 
phoric acid. The chief commercial sources of phosphoric acid 
are guano, ground and crushed bones, and phosphate rocks. 

There arc large deposits of phosphate rocks in South Carolina, 
Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and other states. 
These are supposed to be the accumulated remains of ancient 
animals. The phosphoric acid in them is insoluble and cannot 
be used by plants; it is made soluble, and so available, by being 
treated with sul phu'ric acid. Some preparations contain free sul- 
phuric acid, and if these be used year after year on land, it will 
become 'baked' and lose, instead of gain, fertility. 

The insoluble forms of phosphates, such as bones and untreated 
phosphate rock, decay slowly and should be applied some time 
before needed. They do not injure the soil, are slow and lasting 
in effect, and are especially useful for slow-growing crops. 

Potash. — It is difficult to estimate the amount of available potash 
in a soil, as plants vary greatly in their ability to get it; it is un- 
available for some, where others collect all they need. Tobacco, 
grass, potatoes, legumes, and fruit trees use much potash. 

The chief commercial sources of potash are wood ashes and the 
products of the Stass'furt mines in Germany. These mines are in 
a vast salt bed formed probably by the evaporation of water from an 
inland sea, leaving the substances leached from the land. Potash 
is shipped from these mines in various forms, such as kain'it, 
mu'ri ate of potash, and sul'phate of potash. Common salt 
is the chief impurity in kainit and in muriate of potash. Sulphate 
or nitrate of potash is used on such crops as tobacco, potatoes, 
and fruit, of which the quality would be injured by the salt in 
muriate of potash and kainit. 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



119 



Calcium. — Calcium is an essential plant food of which there is 
generally enough in the soil for plant needs. i\pplications of it, 
however, in the form of lime, are usually beneficial. One of the 
most useful effects of lime is in correcting acidity of soils. From 
various causes, there sometimes form in soils acid compounds, which 




A Lime-spreading Machine at Work 

are injurious to plant growth. Such soils will not produce good 
crops. It is necessary to ' sweeten ' them, as farmers say. This is 
done by applying lime, which combines with tlie acids and destroys 
the injurious compounds. Lime improves soil texture, sets free 
much unavailable plant food, and prevents many fungous diseases. 
The effect of lime is largely a forcing one. Therefore it should be 
used as a su])|)lement to other plant foods, not as a substitute for 
them. A wise old proverb says, — 

" Lime and marl without manure 
Will make both farm and farmer poor." 



120 



AGRICULTURE 




Mixing Fertilizers. — Many farmers buy materials and mix fertil- 
izers according to formulas which tests and experience have proved 

satisfactory. Thus they know the 
kind and (juality of plant food they are 
getting, and obtain it at a reasonable 
^ cost. On page 305 in the A])pendix 
will be found simple and useful sug- 
?'* gestions about mixing fertilizers. 



■.|,v^?»^,^ 






Al.FAI.FA 

The alfalfa on the left was from limed land; that on the right was from an equal area of 
unlimed land. Legumes are usually benefited by applications of lime. 



6UPEPPrt03PHATE 



POTASH SALTS 




NITRATE OF SOOA 



Field Tests. — By mak- 
ing field tests, a farmer can 
learn what fertilizers suit 
the special needs of his 
soil and his crops. It is i\ 
good plan to set aside for 
a test eight plots, each 
twenty-one feet and four 
inches wide and one hun- 
dred and two feet long, 
containing one twentieth 
of an acre. They should 



In this diagram the dark lines unite names of mate- 
rials which should never be mixed ; the light lines 
finite those which may be mixed at any time; the Up SCDaratcd bv StripS of 
double light lines unite those which should be applied ' ., 

im.ncdiateiy after mixing. land about three tect Wide, 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



121 



to prevent the fertilizer used on one plot from affecting the 
adjoining ])lots. 

The fertilizers should be applied as illustrated in the diagram. 
They can be mixed with fine earth and drilled in the rows. The 
plots should be cultivated in the same 
way and ])lanted in the same crop, the 
one for which tlie farmer usually buys 
fertilizers. If he uses them largely on 
several crops, it will j)rove helpful and 
economical to make the test for each 
If potatoes or tobacco be the 



81b. Nitrate of 5oda. 



81b. Muriateof Potash 



I6lb. Phosphoric Acid. 



3 



81b. Nitrate of Soda. 
8" Muriateof Potash. 



81b. Nitrate of 5oda. 
16" Phosphoric Acid 



5 



8 lb. Muriate of Potash 
16" Phosphoric Acid. 



one. 

test crop, sulphate of potash should be 

used instead of muriate of potash. 

The test plots may be made smaller, 
the (juantity of fertilizers being reduced 
accordingly. 

Cost of Fertilizers. — In Iniying or 
in mixing fertilizers, the farmer should 
try to get as many pounds of available 
plant food as possible for the money, 
not as many bags of material. The 
freight and trouble of handling a ton 
of kainit containing one hundred and 
twenty pounds of plant food arc as 
great as those on a ton of muriate of 
potash containing a thousand })ounds. 
A fertilizer at forty dollars the ton 
may be, and often is, cheaper than 
one at twenty dollars the ton, on account of sui)plying over twice 
as much plant food at the same cost for freight and hauhng. 

Guaranteed Analysis. — To protect the farmer against fraud, 



81b. Nitrate of Soda 
8'MuriatG of Potash. 
16" Phosphoric Acid. 



2bu.L 



ime 



7 



8 



Fertilizer Fiei.d Tests 



122 ■ AGRICULTURE 

many state laws require that the guaranteed analysis, or formula, 
of a fertilizer shall be placed on the bag containing it. At the pre- 
vailing prices of unmixed materials, a pound of nitrogen is worth 
about sixteen cents, a pound of potash about five, and a pound of 
phosphoric acid about four and a half. If a farmer understands 
a fertilizer formula, he can tell how many pounds of each he is 
getting in available form; by the price of the ton he can tell whether 
or not he is paying a reasonable price, including the manufacturer's 
profit for mixing and bagging. If he be not willing to take time 
and trouble to learn the A B C of the matter, his purse, and often 
his crop also, will suffer. 

A few years ago a ' natural plant food ' was w^idely advertised 
and extensively sold at from twTnty-five to twenty-eight dollars the 
ton. So much of the plant food which it contained was in insoluble 
and unavailable forms that the real value of the mixture was one 
dollar and fifty-two cents the ton. The printed formula was given 
on the bag, as required by law. But to the man who did not under- 
stand it, this was of no more value than so many Greek letters. 

EXERCISE 

1. To find out if land is acid, take some soil from two to four inches 
below the surface and moisten it thoroughly. Put in it a slip of blue 
litmus paper and leave it there several hours. If the blue paper turns 
red, the soil is acid and needs lime. 

2. Lay off eight plots and make the field tests described on page 120. 
Remember that weather will affect the results; the experiment should 
be repeated several times. You may modify the experiment by using 
more or less of certain substances, so as to learn how to attain most 
economically the best result for a given crop. 

3. Are commercial fertilizers used in your locality ? For what pur- 
poses ? 

4. Get samples of different commercial fertilizers and test them, 
comparing results on same soil with same crop plant. 



OUTLINE OF CHAPTER FOUR 
FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 

Crop Raising: 

Conditions determining crop : 

Climate, soil, labor, market 
Profits lie in 

Cultivating well, in proper way, and at proper time 

Avoiding waste and unnecessary expense 
Forage Crops: 
Uses : 

Supply green and dry feed for stock 
Some grasses : 

Blue grasses, meadow fescue, redtop or herd's grass, orchard grass, 
timothy, Bermuda 

Corn, sorghum 
Some legumes : 

Clovers, cowpeas, alfalfa, vetches, soy beans, Canada field peas, 
velvet beans, peanuts 
Cutting and curing hay 
Cereals: 
Uses : 

Grain for food 

Stalks and leaves for forage 
Requirements: 

Fertile soil, clay or loam preferred 

Much moisture 
Improved by 

Seed selection 

Good tillage 

Cross breeding 

123 



124 AGRICULTURE 

Corn: 

Cultivation: 

Deep plowing before planting 
Shallow cultivation of crop 
Wheat: 

Cultivation : 

Deep, firm seed bed with fine mellow surface 
Oats 
Rye 
Barley 
Rice 
Cotton and Other Fiber Plants: 
Uses: 

Fiber for clothing 

Seed for oil, stock food, and fertilizer 
Cultivation : 

Deep plowing before planting 
Shallow cultivation, not continued late 
Improved by 
Seed selection 
Good cultivation 
Cross breeding 
Cotton : 

Special requirements : 
Long growing season 
Even rainfall 
Much sunshine 

Well-drained soil, loam preferred 
Flax 
Hemp 
Tobacco: 
Uses : 

Leaves for smoking and chewing 
Stems for snuff 
Requirements: 

Soil and climate adapted to type desired 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 1 25 

Cultivation, fertilizin<r, and curing adapted to grade desired 
Cultivation : 

Deep plowing before planting 

Shallow, thorough cultivation of crop 
Improved by 

Seed selection 

Cultivating according to requirements 
Sugar-producing Plants: 
Sugar cane 
Sorghum 
Sugar beets 
The Orchard and its Care: 
Our common fruits 
How fruit trees are grown 
Orchard location 
Selection of varieties 
Transplanting 
Cultivating 
Fertilizing 
Spraying 
Thinning fruit 
Pruning trees 
The Vegetable Garden: 
Location and cultivation 
Market gardening or truck farming 
Our common vegetables 
Berries, bush fruits, and grapes 
The Flower Garden: 
Improvement of flowers 
Annuals 
Biennials 
Perennials 



PRINCIPAL CROP PLANTS 



Grass family 


Rose family 


Corn or maize 


Apple 


Wheat 


Pear 


Oats 


Quince 


Rye 


Peach 


Barley 


Plum 


Rice 


Apricot 


Sugar cane 


Cherry 


Sorghum 


Strawberry 


Timothy 


Raspberry 


Bkie grasses 


Blackberry 


Redtop, or herd's grass 


Dewberry 


Fescues 


Citron family 


Orchard grass 


Orange 


Goose-foot family 


Lemon 




Lime 


Beet 




Spinach 


Carrot family 


Mangel-wurzel 


Carrot 


Melon family or cucurbs 


Parsnip 
Parsley 


Gourd 


Celery 


Cucumber 




Muskmelon 


Nightshade family 


Watennelon 


Tomato 


Squash 


• Eggplant 


_ CymUng 


Pepper 


Pumpkin 


White potato 




Tobacco 


Sunflower family 




Artichokes 


Lily family 


Lettuce 


Onion 


Salsify 


Asparagus 



Nettle family 

Hops 
Morning-glory family 

Sweet potato 

Legume family 

Clovers 
Cowpeas 
Alfalfa 
Vetches 
Soy bean 
Canada field pea 
Velvet bean 
Peanut 
Garden pea 

String beans, or snaps 
Shell beans, — lima, navy, 
and butter beans 

Vine family 

Grapes 

Mallow family 

Cotton 
Okra 

Mustard family 

Mustard 

Turnip 

Radish 

Cabbage 

Cauliflower 

Rape 

Cresses 



126 



CHAPTER FOUR 
FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 

CROP RAISING 

Principles not Methods. — In this chapter you will be told little 
about special methods of cultivating special crops. These are 
to be learned by observing and practicing them in connection 
with the growing crop. Methods vary with season and with soil,- 
as well as with crops : what is right in dry weather, may be wrong 
in wet; what is beneticial on a sandy soil, may be injurious on 
clay. Instead, then, of studying special methods, let us look into 
the principles which underlie crop raising and govern all good 
and successful farm work. 

Let us first consider briefly our agricultural plants. 

Plant Families. — Plants are divided by botanists into families, 
or orders, which include those of common origin. There are two 
hundred families of flowering plants, including over a hundred 
thousand species. A few of these families furnish our crop plants, 
which have many wild relatives, some of which are poisonous. 
Our crisp celery is close kin to the poisonous hemlock, the white 
potato to the deadly nightshade. It is useful to know these kin- 
ships. While related plants may differ greatl}- in appearance, 
they need similar food and care and are subject to the same 
diseases and insect enemies. 

The grass family is a large and useful one. In it are included 
sugar cane, sorghum, and the cereals, as well as numerous pasture 

127 



I2{ 



AGRICULTURE 



and hay grasses. These plants have fibrous surface roots, long, 
narrow leaves, and Jointed, hollow or pithy stems. Their flowers 
arc usually small and scentless, as they depend upon the wind 
to carry their pollen. 

You have alreadv been told somethimi about the legume, or 




Produci'ive Areas of the Principal Agricultural Staples of the 
United States 



pod-bearing, family, which has the power of using free nitrogen 
by means of bacteria that live in the tubercles on the roots. 

The rose family, which gives us our most beautiful flowers, 
is the great fruit family of the north temperate zone. On page 126 
is a table of our principal crop plants, classified according to 
families. 

Crop Development. — To Asia we owe most of our food plants. 
They have had their equalities developed by hundreds, even thou- 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 1 29 

sands, of years of cultivation. By cultivation they have been given 
a much wider range of soil and climate than their wild ancestors 
had. But they still have preferences, often very decided ones, as 
to climate, soil, moisture, and other conditions. Their yield is 
largest in quantity and best in quaHty when these preferences are 
regarded, and therefore it is to the farmer's interest to consider 
them. His profits lie in producing at the least possible cost the 
best possible crop. 

Climate. — Climate is a matter of main imjjortance. A warmth- 
loving j)lant, such as cotton, will not grow in northern climates; 
certain varieties of wheat do not flourish in warm sections. Crim- 
son clover seldom does well in the North, and Canada peas are 
usually unsatisfactory in the South. 

Soil. — Soil has a decided effect on crops. On a sandy soil 
most grain crops, especially wheat, arc small in quantity and 
inferior in quality ; on that soil tubers and root crops thrive. 
On a clay soil, on the other hand, root crops do not develop well, 
but wheat and most other cereals and grasses thrive. 

Moisture. — In their moisture requirements, also, j)lants vary 
widely. The drought-enduring Kafir corn will grow where most 
plants would die for want of water; moisture-loving rice will 
thrive where most plants would be drowned. 

Conditions Determining Crops. — Soil and climate, then, de- 
termine the possibility of the crops on a farm; but it is market 
and other conditions which, to a large extent, determine their 
profitableness. 

The eastern states, where there are many towns and cities and 
a network of railroads, are largely occuj)ied willi dairy farming, 
poultry raising, and market gardening. In the South, .where 
land is plentiful and labor has been abundant, are raised the great 
labor-demanding staples, tobacco and cotton. In the West, where 



130 AGRICULTURE 

land is plentiful but labor scarce, are raised vast crops of grain 
and great quantities of stock. 

It will not do to grow a crop simply because it was a profitable 
one for our fathers and grandfathers. Labor and market condi- 
tions change, and the successful farmer, like the successful man 
in other fields of business, must adapt himself to circumstances. 
New England was once the wheat farm of the United States. Since 
large crops of grain have been produced on the prairie lands, 
New England farmers have found it more profitable to raise other 
crops. In turn, the vast wheat crops of the Northwest will prob- 
ably compel the prairie states to seek profit in other branches of 
agriculture. 

Changed labor conditions have brought about changes in south- 
ern farming. Deprived of the' vast fixed element of slave labor, 
the landowners have been forced to reduce their acreage of cotton 
and to raise at home their food supplies. They are finding profit 
in diversified farming and stock raising. 

Methods of Cultivation. — Special methods of cultivation depend 
largely on soil and season, and on the habits of growth and feeding 
powers of each special crop. There are, however, some general 
principles applicable to most cases. A deep, fertile seed bed and 
thorough tillage rarely fail to pay their cost, and a profit besides. 

Season for Planting. — Other things being equal, the most 
profitable crop is the one planted at the most favorable season. 
In sections subject to summer drought, it is important to plant 
crops as early as possible. This gives them the advantage of the 
spring and winter store of moisture, and enables them by early 
growth and vigorous condition better to resist dry weather. The 
cultivation of a crop should put it in the best possible shape for 
the average and usual conditions of temperature and moisture of 
the section. 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



I SI 



It is important for sake of both the crop and the soil to utihze 
favorable conditions. The successful tobacco grower works early 
and late to get his crop transplanted during a favorable season. 
A grain grower considers carefully the condition of his seed bed. 




Courtesy of NebraNk, I \_ iciiitin:n ^i:iii..ii 

Average Plants from Three Fields of Grass 

The plant on the left was seeded in September ; the others were seeded later and did not 
get well rooted before winter. 

Any good farmer can give you instances drawn from his own 
experience which prove that it pays to cultivate a crop well, and 
that it is important to plant and work a croj) at the right time, when 
seasons are favorable. 

Business Methods. — Farming demands for its successful pur- 
suit the same equalities and methods required for success in other 



132 AGRICULTURE 

occupations, — industry, intelligence, energy, and system. A 
manufacturer knows to a fraction of a cent what profit he is mak- 
ing on every bolt of cloth that his mill produces. If he finds that 
he is working at a loss, he increases his selling price, cuts down 
wages, or closes his mill. 

Farming is a business in which more money is invested than in 
manufacturing or any other industry in the United States. Does 
a farmer know at what price he can afford to sell wheat and 
tobacco, or pork and beef, unless he knows what it cost him to 
raise them? Can he tell what crop is most profitable unless he 
knows, in each case, the cost of production as well as the selling 
price ? 

Keeping Accounts. — He should keep accounts as carefully as 
does the manufacturer. He should make a record of the cost of 
each crop, labor of man, team, and tools, quantity, composition, 
and cost of fertilizers, yield, and selling price. He should keep 
account of all his live stock, value of food, and returns in meat, 
milk, wool, and other products. 

Increasing Profits. — Like the manufacturer, he must change 
his methods if he finds that he is working at a loss.- If he cannot 
sell a product for a paying price or cut down cost so as to make it 
profitable, he should stop raising it. Profits can often be increased 
by foresight and good judgment in planting, cultivating, and 
marketing crops so as to improve their cjuality or to get them on 
the market at a favorable time. It is usually more profitable to 
sell, instead of raw products, articles made from raw products, — 
that is, to sell wool instead of hay, milk or butter instead of fodder. 

Reducing Expenses. — By studying and applying the principles 
underlying the feeding of plants and animals, a farmer can reduce 
the cost of crop production and stock raising. This reduction, of 
course, increases his profits. 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 133 

By-products. — All by-products on the farm, such as manure and 
ashes, should be used so as to get their full value. Advantage 
should be taken of processes to save material that formerly went 
to waste, such as cotton seed and cornstalks. 

These matters may seem small, but they are important. All 
waste, all unnecessary expense, are so many dollars and cents 
deducted from the farmer's profit. Docs he buy seed which he 
could as well or better raise at home ? The cost comes off his 
profit. Does he hire incompetent laborers and so fail to get his 
work d6ne at the proper time in the proper way? The so-called 
economy is an expense reducing his profits. Does he sleep late in 
the morning and loaf in the afternoon when his crops need him ? 
The indulgence makes a heavy deduction from his profits. 

Exercises are given in connection with the special crops which follow. 

FORAGE CROPS 

Uses of Forage Crops. — As forage crops, we group those plants 
which are used as green or dry feed for horses, cattle, sheep, and 
other stock. These differ widely in growth and habits; they have 
one quality in common, — they produce luxuriant and succulent 
leaves and stems. 

These forage plants are used in different ways. Sometimes 
they are sowed on land to form pastures where stock can graze. 
Sometimes they are fed as soiling crops, — that is, they are cut and 
fed green. Sometimes they are cut green, but instead of being fed 
at once, they are put away in air-tight buildings, called si'los, to 
furnish green feed in winter. This si'lage, as it is called, is espe- 
cially relished by dairy cattle. Sometimes the crop is allowed to 
stand until nearly ripe, and then is cut and exposed to the air 
and sun to dry so as to make hay. 



134 



AGRICULTURE 



Grasses. — Among the best pasture and hay plants are some 
members of the grass family. Those that spread by means of 
rootstocks or underground stems are especially adapted to pastures. 
Plants that spread by the seed alone would soon be killed by 
close grazing, whic"h prevents their maturing seed. Among the 
best pasture grasses are the blue grasses, meadow fescues, orchard 



JS^ 




Kentucky blue grass 



Buffalo grass 
Three Good Pasture Grasses 



Bermuda grass 



grass, redtop or herd's grass, and Bermuda grass. Redtop and 
timothy make excellent hay. 

Many farmers sow on pasture land and hayfields a mixture con- 
taining several varieties of grass. This produces a larger crop 
and exhausts the soil less than one variety, because different 
grasses have different feeding habits and requirements. A favorite 
mixture is timothy, redtop, orchard grass, and clover. 

Most of the true grasses flourish best in cool cHmates and on 
fertile soil, especially on limestone soils. 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



135 



Bermuda Grass. — In the South, Bermuda grass makes excellent 
summer pasture. Where year-round j)asturage is desired, the 
Bermuda sod is harrowed and sowed with bur clover or hairy 
vetch to furnish winter grazing. Bermuda grass matures seed 
only in tropical countries ; in temperate regions it spreads by means 
of its underground stems which take root at every joint. Owing 
to this habit of growth, it bears close pasturing without injury. 
It grows on almost any soil, however poor, and is especially valu- 
able on thin, rolling lands disposed to wash. Bermuda is a sun- 




The Product of a Good Pasture 



loving grass and dies when shaded. It can be killed in a season 
or two by a sowed crop, such as cowpeas. 

Corn. — Corn, which is our most valuable grain plant, is also 
our chief forage crop. Its uses and cultivation are described on 
page 140. 

Sorghum. — In the South and Southwest, especially in semi-arid 
lands, Kafir corn and other varieties of sorghum are much used 
for forage. Sorghum resembles corn in growth, but is a stronger 
feeder and so thrives better on thin land. It endures extremes 
of heat and cold well, and resists drought that would kill corn. 



136 



AGRICULTURE 



It is a valuable hay crop in sections where redtop, timothy, and 
clover cannot be grown. 

Rape. — Rape is a valuable crop for pasturing and soiling. It 
is easily grown and furnishes a large amount of forage that ,is 
especially relished by sheep and hogs. In the South it supplies 
late fall and winter grazing, and at the North cheap summer 
forage. 

Legumes. — The most profitable fodder crops are legumes. 
They do double work, — fertilizing the soil, as you have learned, 









P- 

74 lbs 










N. 

seibs 




R 

35 It 




P. A 

Bibs 


RA. 
211k 






lOOIbs. 



Timothy 



Red Clover 



COWPEAS 



Alfalfa 



This diagram shows the amount of potash, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen, as indicated 
by initial letters, removed from an acre of soil by different hay crops. It is estimated that 
timothy will yield two tons of cured hay to the acre; red clover, two tons; cowpeas, two 
tons ; alfalfa, three tons. The shaded figures indicate that the legumes, under proper con- 
ditions, get their supply of nitrogen from the air. 

and also furnishing a large yield of excellent feed. Besides luxu- 
riant foliage, many of them produce seeds having a high food 
value. They are strong-feeding plants, and their long roots pump 
up food that is out of reach of shallow-rooted plants. 

In the large legume family are members adapted to widely 
different conditions. Red clover is the one most widely grown in 
the North, cowpeas and crimson clover in the South, and alfalfa 
in the West. No one of them, however, is limited to one section. 

Red Clover. — Red clover is a perennial which is usually culti- 
vated as a biennial. It makes a light yield the first season, and a 
heavy yield the second one. It 'is often sowed with grasses. The 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



137 



clover dies the second year, leaving the field in grass. Clover 
should be cut for hay before the first blossoms turn brown. If cut 
before the seeds form, it will put out again and, in its efforts to 
seed, will make a heavy second crop. If cut late, after the seeds 
form, the second crop will be light. Mammoth clover is a rank- 
growing variety of red clover. 




Red clover Crimson clover Cowpeas 

Four Valuable Lecumes 



Alfalfa 



Crimson Clover. — Crimson clover is an annual used as a forage 
crop in the central and southern states. It requires a mild climate 
and thrives on lighter soil than other clovers. It is sowed in the 
summer or fall, furnishes a valuable winter cover crop, and matures 
in the spring; often it is cut or plowed under to give place to a crop 
of cotton, tobacco, or corn. 

Cowpeas. — Where it thrives, the cowjjca is one of the best 
forage crops and soil improvers. It is a tender, strong-feeding 
annual. It grows better on thin, sandy soil than any other forage 
crop, and adapts itself to different conditions of soil and moisture. 



138 AGRICULTURE 

Its deep roots get water and plant food from the subsoil. The 
cowpea grows rapidly, and in three months adds to the soil two 
thirds as much fertility as does red clover in eighteen months, 
besides producing a larger quantity of hay of equal feeding 
value. 

Soy Bean. — The soy bean is a legume with many of the good 
qualities of the cowpea. It has the advantage of an upright growth 
and greater ability to resist drought. 

Alfalfa. — Alfalfa is a wonderfully productive legume. It is 
the principal forage plant on the irrigated lands of the West. It 
can be grown in all sections of the United States, where the soil is 
properly prepared and inoculated. In some of the eastern states 
it is called lu cerne', the name by which it is known in Europe. 
Alfalfa is the Arabic name used by the Spaniards, who introduced 
it into Mexico. 

Alfalfa roots descend ten feet, or deeper, and use food and water 
out of reach of most crops. The land for it must be fertile and 
well drained. Alfalfa is a slow-growing plant and needs to be 
protected against quick-growing weeds. It should be kept mowed 
and free from weeds. 

It does not reach its prime for three or four years, but produces 
from three to seven cuttings of hay every year for ten, fifteen, 
twenty years, or longer. If allowed to bloom and form seeds before 
it is mowed, its growth and vigor are lessened. 

Other Legumes. — There are many other legumes used more or 
less extensively for pasturage and hay. Canada field peas and 
Alsike, or Swedish clover, require a cool climate; velvet beans 
require a warm one; vetches and Dutch, or white, clover thrive in 
both. 

The peanut is a legume which is cultivated chiefly for the nuts. 
These are used for food and candy making, and for an oil re- 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



^39 



sembling olive oil. The vines, properly cured, make excellent hay, 
which is relished by all stock. Peanuts are often grown as a crop 
to be harvested by hogs. An acre of peanuts will make more pork 
than an acre of cowpeas or corn. 

The soil should be kept loose by cultivation till the vines run 
freely. The plant flowers like a pea on the vine and then forms 
the nut at the end of the flower spike. This turns down into the 
ground and matures underground. The crop is harvested before 
frost, and the vines are shocked around poles. When dry, the nuts 
are picked off. 




t'mirtcsy iif West ^'irginin Agricultural Station 

A Crop of Timothy Hay which yielded 8,527 Lb. to the Acre 

Curing Hay. — The feeding value of hay crops depends largely 
on the time of cutting and the method of curing, or drying. Cut 
too early, plants are immature, sappy, and lack nourishment. Cut 
too late, the nourishment has gone to form seeds, and the stems 
are hard and woody. When it flowers fully, the whole plant is 
in the best condition for hay, full of nourishing juices. 

It requires care and experience to cure hay properly. IMuch 
depends on the weather before and during the season of curing. 



140 AGRICULTURE 

In a dry season hay cures easily. If it continues wet and plants 
are full of sap, care is needed to prevent mildew and rot. If 
cutting is followed by cold, wet weather, the crop will be injured or 
lost in spite of care. 

EXERCISE 

1. Collect specimens of true grasses and legumes. Compare their 
different parts, — roots, stems, leaves, and blossoms, — and make draw- 
ings of them. How is the pollen of legumes carried ? How is that of 
true grasses conveyed ? 

2. What are the best pasture and hay crops of your section ? 

3. You will enjoy raising some peanuts and observing the plants' 
habits of growth. The small Spanish peanuts are productive and are 
easy to raise. 

CORN, WHEAT, AND OTHER CEREALS 

Cereals. — Cereals are plants of the grass family which are 
cultivated for their seed or grains. Among the most widely culti- 
vated ones are corn, wheat, oats, rye, barley, and rice. During 
the early stages of growth there is much nourishment in the stems 
and leaves of cereals, and they are sometimes cut then for green 
.feed or hay. Usually, however, they are allowed to ripen their 
seeds, — the grain crop so valuable for food. Much of the plant's 
nourishing substance is stored in the grain, but the leaves and 
stalk are still useful for forage. 

Corn. — Corn, or maize, our great American cereal, is probably 
a native of tropical America. Long before Columbus crossed the 
ocean, it was cultivated as a bread grain by Indian tribes in the 
North and South, the East and West; and still from Maine to 
Florida, from Massachusetts to California, the summer sun shines 
on broad, waving fields of corn. 

The average annual crop of the United States is over two and a 



FIELD, ORCHARD. AND GARDEN CROPS 141 

half billion bushels of grain, — three fourths of the world's crop. 
This is used as food for man and beast, and as material for the 
manufacture of starch, alcohol, and many other products. 

The grain, however, does not form more than half the value of 
the corn crop. The leaves and husks, or shucks, and stalk con- 
tain more nourishment than 
those of most other cereals, 
and furnish a vast amount 
of forage; one sixth of the 
nourishment of the plant is 
in the stalks. 

Paper and pasteboard are 
made from cornstalk fiber, 
and the pith furnishes mate- 
rial for linoleum and the 
packing for gunboats. Corn- 
stalks are a valuable source 
of commercial alcohol. This 

Til 1 Ti r Courtesy of Kfiitm-kv A^rriciiltnrnl Station 

IS alcohol made unlit for 

J . , . , ^ r 1 f 1- 1 , Uniform Ears of Corn 

drmkmg, but useful for light, 

heat, and power. Since the government tax has been removed 

from commercial alcohol, corn growers have a new source of 

profit and of cheap power, light, and fuel. The cornstalks from 

an acre of corn yielding fifty bushels of grain produce about one 

hundred gallons of alcohol. 

Range. — Corn, being a tropical plant, thrives best in a warm 

climate and on a moist, fertile soil. It has, however, such power of 

adapting itself to its surroundings that it has a wide range of soil 

and climate, and it grows in all sections of the United States. 

Indeed, the largest average yield of grain in the country is 

in New England, with its poor soil and short growing season. 




142 AGRICULTURE 

There it is given the thorough tillage to which all cereals re- 
spond. 

Cultivation. — The cultivation of the corn crop should begin 
before it is planted. The plowing should be deep and thorough. 
The corn should be planted as soon as the ground is warm 
enough; general experience is that early planting gives the best 
yield. Growing conditions are usually more favorable in the 
spring, and an early crop is less often injured by drought. Flat, 
shallow cultivation is best, except on wet lands where ridge culti- 
vation is needed for drainage. Deep plowing breaks off the 




A Field of Corn that produced One Hundred and Thirty Bushels 
TO the Acre 

roots near the surface that are busy getting air, water, and food 
for the plants. This lessens the crop yield. In dry sections corn 
is often 'listed,' — that is, it is planted in furrows which are 
gradually filled by cultivation so that the roots range deeper and 
secure more moisture. 

Saving Corn Forage. — Farmers are naturally desirous of saving 
both the forage and the grain of this valuable crop. Some pull 
the unripe leaves for fodder and cut the tops above the ears. But 
this requires a great deal of labor and lessens the yield of grain. 
You can easily see why it is so. You have learned how important 
the foliage is to a plant. You would never pull the leaves off a 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



143 



grape vine and expect it to mature a full crop of fruit ; neither can 
this be done with corn. If, however, the stalks be left in the field 
until the grain is mature, the forage loses much of its value. 

It has been found most profitable to cut the whole stalk before it 
is quite ripe. The leaves and stalk then continue to feed the grain 
and mature it without much loss; thus both grain and forage are 
saved. 

It is a laborious undertaking to remove the corn from these cut 




Cultivating Corn 

Stalks, shuck or husk it, and cut the stalks for forage. Sometimes 
the stalks are fed whole, as ' sto'ver,' but there is much waste, 
because their hard fiber keeps them from being fully utiliz.ed for 
food. There are machines which remo\'c and husk the corn and 
cut or crush the stalks into a coarse hay which is a palatable and 
nutritious fodder. 

Fertilizers. — Some plants when they get half enough food ma- 
ture half a crop. Corn, however, does not. When it is dwarfed 
by poor soil, it ])roduces either no grain or a small and inferior 
crop. Therefore poor land should be improved by legumes, 
manures, and fertilizers before it is planted in corn. 



144 



AGRICULTURE 



Place in Rotation. — As corn removes humus and nitrogen 
from the soil, it should follow and i)recede crops which supply 




Ci>i;X i)\ SolT. TOO I'ODi: id VII ID A PROFITABLE CROP 



one or both of these. 







P. 

58 lbs. 




N. 

37lbS 














N. 
27 lbs. 




PA 
IJlby 





Grain 



Forage 



Some good farmers sow rye or crimson 
clover in the fall on land to be 
planted in corn the following 
spring, and plow under the rye 
crop or clover stubble. 

Improvement. — The average 
yield of corn in the United 
States is only twenty-four bush- 
els to the acre. It is an easy 



This diagram shows the amount of fertility 
removed from an acre of soil by a crop of corn 
yieldingforty bushels of grain and 3500 lbs. of (-j-Qp tO imprOVC in yield and 

°'^^^^" in quality. It is estimated that 

the yield to the acre could easily and quickly be doubled with 
very little increase in work or expense by improving the seed, 



FIELD, ORCHARD. AND GARDEN CROPS 



145 



the condition of the soil, and the methods of cuhivation. Thus 
each farmer could raise as much corn as he is now producing 
on half the land with httlc more than half 
the labor. 

Seed Selection. — It is important to se- 
lect seed corn in the field, so as to 
choose ears from healthy, productive 
plants. A farmer planted half of his 
field with seed selected in the field and 
half with seed selected from the crib con- 
taining his best corn. 
Soil and cultivation were 
the same. The seed corn 
from the crib yielded 
eighty bushels to the 
acre ; the field-selected 
seed yielded ninety-six 
bushels. 

For seed, the best ears 
should be selected from 
the best stalks. The 
plants should be stout 
and healthy, well pro- 
vided with leaves so as 

to give a good yield of fodder. The stalk should 
bear two or more good ears, which point 'down- 
ward when ripe. The size and shape of ear and 
kernel, the arrangement and number of rows 
and the size of cob should be carefully consid- 
ered. The ear should be well filled out at both ends ; the rows 
should be straight and uniform ; and the grains should be 





A good stalk from which to 
select seed corn 



A good ear of seed 
corn 



146 



AGRICULTURE 



wedge-shaped. These give the largest grain yield to the ear, 

and hence to the acre. 

Seed corn should be raised on a plot where 
it will not mix with other varieties. It should 
have fertile soil and careful cultivation. In 
thinning, all inferior plants should be destroyed. 
As the tassels appear, they should be removed 
from all barren, or earless, stalks. If these tas- 
sels are left, their pollen fertilizes the productive 
plants, and the number of barren stalks in the 
next crop is increased. 

Wheat. — Wheat has been raised from very 
ancient times. The quantity and Cjuality of the 
crop is highest in cool climates, but it will thrive 
in a variety of climates if given proper tillage 
and fertilizing. It prefers close, firm, rich land. 
A fertile Icam is best, and next to that well- 
drained, manured clay. Sandy soils are poor- 
est for wheat, because the subsoil is apt to be 

A bad ear of seed corn ^qq oDCn. 

Wheat is raised in all sections of the United States. It is third 
in value of the crops of the country. The United States produces 
about one fifth of the 
three billion bushels 
which the world con- 
sumes annually. 

The great wheat 
belt of America is in 
the Northwest, ex- 
tending from Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana northward 
far into Canada. This section is capable of producing the entire 





Different shaped kernels of corn. The fourth is the best 
shaped. W^hy? 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 147 

wheat supply of the world. Unfertilized, it averages twenty-four 
bushels to the acre. 

The average production of the United States is only thirteen 
bushels, though forty is not an uncommon yield. The yield to the 
acre of the rockv New England farms is twice as larcje as the 




StEDI.N'G WllEAl Al-TER COKN 

fertile wheat lands of the West, because the eastern farmers pre- 
pare and fertilize the seed bed better. 

Cultivation. — Thorough preparation of the soil is important for 
two reasons: it is a sowed crop, and all its cultivation must be 
given before it is seeded; it is a weak-feeding plant which has 
little ])ower to get food for itself; it needs to have the soil fertile 
and mellow, — in condition to furnish it food. 

Wheat requires a firm seed bed to give root hold and to bring 
up water and food by capillarity. It needs, also, a line, mellow 



148 



AGRICULTURE 



surface to favor germination and early growth. To secure this 
firm seed bed, the land should be plowed deep several weeks 
before seed time. To secure the fine surface, it should be harrowed 
repeatedly, so as to pulverize the two or three inches of top soil. 
The last working should be with the smoothing harrow, followed 
by the roller just before seeding the grain. 

Seed can be sowed much more economically and evenly by the drill 
than by hand, and it is covered uniformly to the desired depth. 
Good seed on fertile, well-prepared land is apt to yield a bountiful 
harvest. Failure to produce good crops is usually due to poor, 
ill-prepared land and late plowing. 

A field of ripening wheat, with its golden waves rippling in the 
breezes under the summer sunshine, is a beautiful sight. How the 
heart of the farmer is gladdened by a bountiful harvest as the re- 
ward of his labor ! The ripe grain is cut and bound into bundles, 
called ' sheaves.' Formerly this had to be done by hand, but 
there are now labor-saving machines for the purpose. The sheaves 
are usually placed together in ' shocks ' to dry. When dry, the 
wheat is threshed to separate the grain from the chaff and straw ; 
the grain is sent to the mill to be ground into flour ; the straw is 

used for bedding or forage for 
stock. 

Fertilizers. — Wheat needs 
to have the surface soil well 
supplied with plant food. It 
has no power to collect nitro- 
gen for itself, and but small 
power to collect potash and 
phosphoric acid. Therefore 
when these three elements are lacking in the soil, they must be 
supplied by well- rotted stable manure and by commercial ferti- 









N. 
23lbS. 










PA. 

lOlbs. 






p 
lOlbs. 


p. 

7lbS. 





Grain 



Straw 



This diagram shows the amount of fertility re- 
moved from an acre of soil by a crop of wheat 
yielding twenty bushels of grain and 2000 lbs. 
of straw. 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



149 



lizers. Lime is beneficial, making plant food in the soil avail- 
able. 

Place in Rotation. — One of the best and cheapest ways of 
fertilizing wheat is by preceding it with a nitrogen-collecting, 
deep-rooted crop, such as clover or cow^peas; this leaves the soil 
firm and the surface well supplied with plant food. After a legume, 
wheat needs potash and phosphoric acid. It is often sowed after 
tobacco to utihze tliti plant 
food which that leaves in 
the surface soil. 

Wheat should be fol- 
lowed by a deep-rooted, 
strong-feeding crop. The 
worst crops to precede or 
follow it are other small 
grains and corn, which 
make practically the same 
demands on the soil. 

Varieties. — There are 
hundreds of varieties of 
wheat developed chiefly 
by care, cultivation, and 
selection. A Pennsylvania 
farmer, passing one day 
through his field of bearded 
wheat, found a plant that 
was beardless. He sa\'ed 
the seed, and from that one plant was produced a productive 
beardless variety, of which thousands of bushels are grown every 
year. 

Certain varieties have been brought from Russia which have 




Cuurtusy ot Ohio A;j:ricultiirul Stnlion 

Beardlkss and BEARDKI) Whkat 



150 



AGRICULTURE 



such power to resist drought that they extend the wheat-growing 
area hundreds of miles in the semi -arid states of the West and 
Southwest. Varieties have been bred which thrive on thin soils 
and in warm climates where wheat growing has hitherto been 
unprofitable. Many improved varieties are obtained by cross 
fertilizing by means of hand pollination, a process which has already 
been explained. The Minnesota Experiment Station has bred a 
variety that produces five bushels an acre more than any other 
variety grown in that section; this put millions of dollars into the 
pockets of farmers in the Northwest. 

Wheat Breeding. — If you examine the wheat blossom, you will 
understand why cross fertilizing is rarely accomplished by nature. 
The head is made up of many separate flowers. Each flower 
has three stamens and one pistil, inclosed in a cover, or chaff, so 

that the seed is self fertihzed. A 
wheat breeder carefully removes 
the pollen from one flower and 
places it upon the pistil of another. 
Thus from two good plants, by 
repeated efforts, he may secure 
one better than either of its par- 
ents. 

Seed Selection. — The wheat 
crop can be greatly improved 

§§jf IP ^ ^ 'jy careful selection of seed. A 

^ <^ ^ busy farmer is seldom able to 

select seed from individual plants,- 
which is the way that many im- 
proved varieties are obtained. A 
seed strip, however, can be set aside in the best portion of the field. 
After this wheat is threshed, it should be graded through sieves 




.^^ 



Good and Bad Seed Wheat 

The grains at the left are plump and healthy ; 
those on the right are shriveled. 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



'51 





N 

18.7 lbs. 




P 
16.711)5. 


1 P.A.| 
UIU. 










N. 
12 ItlS. 


p 




PA, 

SItlJ. 





Grain 



Straw 



in order to obtain the large, plump grains. The best of this 
should be used to sow a seed plot, and the remainder used for 
the field crop. 

Any variety can be improved by raising seed every year in 
a plot given special care and preparation. The grain should 
alv^ays be graded, and the best used for the seed plot and the sec- 
ond best for the field crop. Small and inferior yields are often 
due to the use of poor seed, especially of inferior, shriveled spring 
grain for fall seeding. 

Oats, Rye, and Barley. — Oats, rye, and barley resemble wheat 
in growth, but are stronger-feed- 
ing plants and flourish under 
less favorable conditions. They 
should be preceded or followed 
by deep-rooted plants, prefer- 
ably by nitrogen-gathering ones. 

These small grains are culti- 
vated in the United States for 
three purposes. 

First : their grain crop makes wholesome and nourishing food 
for man and beast, and their straw is used for forage. Rye and 
barley are used in the manufacture of alcohol. 

Second : these cereals make a good crop for green feed or for 
hay if cut just before they mature, when the stalks contain most 
nourishment. 

Third: they arc used as winter cover crops. For this purpose 
they are seeded in the fall; making their growth during the winter, 
they keep the land from washing and use plant food which would be 
wasted; they are then plowed under in the spring to supply the 
land with humus. 

Rice. — Rice flourishes in warm climates and is raised in the 



This diagram shows the amount of fertility 
removed from an acre of soil by a crop of 
oats yielding thirty bushels of grain and 2500 
lbs. of straw. 



152 



AGRICULTURE 



southern states, especially those along the Gulf of Mexico. There 
are two distinct varieties : lowland rice, for which the fields have 
to be flooded at certain seasons, and upland rice, which is culti- 
vated in practically the same way as other cereals, such as oats. 

For lowland rice the land is prepared as for other grain, and the 
rice is sowed broadcast or put in drills and covered to a depth of 
about two inches. Then water is turned on from irrigating ditches 




Courteay ui Arka 



i Agricultural Station 

Threshing and Loading Rice 



and is allowed to stand several days. . It is then drawn otT; after 
the plants get a good start, it is turned on again and is drawn off 
before harvest time. The crop is harvested and threshed very 
much like wheat. 

The fact that the. water needed is supplied by irrigation makes 
it practically a sure crop; and it is proving a profitable crop in 
Texas and Louisiana and other states where climate and moisture 
conditions are favorable. 



EXERCISE 

1. Plant grains of each of the cereals in a box with gkiss sides, as 
described in experiment 4 on page 72, and watch and compare the de- 
velopment of the plants. 

2. Cultivate in carefully prepared plots each one of these six cereals 
that is adapted to your climate and conditions. Compare their habits 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 153 

of growth and especially their seed heads. Select good varieties and 
try to make them belter by good cultivation and careful seed selec- 
tion. 

3. Plant in one row small, shrunken grains of wheat and in the row 
next to it large, plump grains. Is there any difference in plants and yield 
in the two rows ? 

4. Obtain from your state Agricultural Experiment Station the score 
cards which it uses in judging corn, wheat, and other grains. Get 
from farmers or raise for yourself some of the varieties most popular 
in your neighborhood. Select five or ten of the best ears of each variety, 
and mark the points on a score card. 

5. Select ah ear of corn that has short grains and one of about the 
same size that has long wedge-shaped grains. Shell each and measure 
the grain to see which yields most. Weigh grain and cob of each 
separately. What per cent of each is corn and what per cent is cob? 
Good seed corn gives eighty-five per cent grain. 



COTTON AND OTHER FIBER PLANTS 

Fiber Materials. — There are four great staples which provide 
us materials for the fabrics which we use for so many purposes. 
Two of these, silk and wool, are animal products; two, cotton and 
flax, are vegetable ones. The United States imports three of these 
staples, silk, wool, and flax, usually manufactured into fabrics; 
the fourth, cotton, is our chief export and furnishes material for 
one of our most valuable manufacturing industries. 

Uses of Cotton. — While the cotton plant is raised primarily 
for its fiber, other parts are useful, also. The seed furnishes an 
oil valuable for illuminating, cooking, and other j)urposes; the 
hulls and meal left from the manufacture of oil are used for stock 
feed and fertilizer. The root bark is used as a medicine, and the 
stalk fiber is woven into coarse cloth for bagging. Recentlv, 
machinery has been perfected to make paper out of the stalks; 



154 



AGRICULTURE 



this will doubtless increase the annual value of the crop about a 
hundred million dollars. 

Range and Cultivation. — The cotton plant is of tropical origin, 
and its successful culture is limited to the region south of latitude 




Choi'I'in<; Cotton on a Plantation in Louisiana 

thirty-seven. It needs a long growing season, — at least six 
months free from frost, — an abundant, even rainfall during its 
growing period, and much sunshine, especially during its ripening 
season. 

Where climate and rainfall are favorable, it will thrive in almost 
any soil. It prefers, however, a medium loam. 

After the plants come up, many good farmers run a harrow 
crosswise over the held, to destroy young weeds and to thin the 
cotton. The final thinning, or ' chopping to a stand,' should be 
done while the plants are small. If this be delayed too long, 
they become stunted and never regain their vitality. The cultiva- 
tion should be clean and shallow, so as to destroy weeds and to 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



155 



preserve a soil-mulch, but not to break the surface roots. It should 
not continue too late, else it will produce growth at expense of 
fruit. 

The great labor of cotton production is picking the crop, — a 
tedious and costly operation which has to be performed by hand. 
Then the fiber is ginned to remove the seed, and the lint is pressed 
by machinery into large bundles, called ' bales,' each weighing 
about five hundred pounds. The baled cotton is sent to mills, 
where it is spun into thread and woven into cloth. 

Cotton makes only moderate demands on the soil, but it is often 
profitable to use fertilizers to hasten its maturity. When plant 
food is scarce or unavailable, 
cotton needs to have supplied 
phosphoric acid, nitrogen, and 
potash. The cheapest way to 
furnish the nitrogen is usually 
to precede cotton with a nitro- 
gen-gathering crop, such as 
cowpeas or crimson clover. 
If this is done, it will be 
necessary to furnish only the 
cheap mineral elements, phosphoric acid and potash. 

Cotton lint is composed almost entirely of carbon, obtained from 
the air. If only this be removed, cotton takes less fertility from 
the land than almost any other croj). The seeds remove twenty- 
one times as much mineral matter as does the hnt. They should 
be replaced by their equivalent in fertilizing elements. ' Re- 
placed,' we say, for good farmers now seldom use cotton seed 
for a fertilizer, as they did some )'ears ago, while poor ones left 
them to accumulate around the gin, like sawdust around a mill. 

Now the seeds are usually sold to oil mills, which extract the oil. 









N 
34 lbs 






RA. 

14 IDs 




p 

13 ib5. 





Fiber Seed 

This diagram shows the amount of potash^ 
phosphoric acid, and nitrogen removed from 
an acre of soil by a crop of cotton, producing 
a bale of cotton and 1000 lb. of seed. 



156 



AGRICULTURE 



The hulls and meal left from the process are used as fertilizer or 
stock feed. 

Place in Rotation. — Cotton, as already stated, removes from 
the land less fertility than almost any other crop. Why is it, 
then, that cotton farms are so often poor and ' run down ' ? 
This is due to unwise and improper cultivation. The one-crop 
system prevails largely throughout the cotton section. • The same 
land is put in cotton year after year. Being a clean crop, it destroys 

humus. Being gath- 
ered late, it often 
leaves the land bare 
through the winter 
to lose more by 
leaching and wash- 
ing than by its sum- 
mer crop. 

Cotton should 
take its place in a 
regular rotation and 
should stay there. 
In this rotation there 
should be a nitro- 
gen-gathering, hu- 
mus-producing crop. 
Crimson clover 
should be sowed in cotton, at the last working, or rye, after it is 
gathered, to furnish a winter cover-crop. 

Sea Island and Upland Cotton. — There are two kinds of cotton 
raised in the United States, sea island and upland. The sea island 
cotton flourishes on the islands and along the coast of South 
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. It needs a hot, humid climate. 




Cotton Bolls 
On the left is American upland ; on the right, sea island. 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



157 



Its long, beautiful, silky staple, or fiber, is much valued for making 
lace and thread. The yield is smaller than that of the short-stapled 
upland varieties which are cultivated in most of the cotton belt. 

Wilt and Weevils. — Within recent years the cotton croj) in 
some sections has suffered much from disease and insect ravages. 
The sea island cotton was attacked by a wilt disease which de- 
stroyed entire crops; cotton grown on the same land for }"ears 
afterward was almost sure to be attacked 
by this deadly leaf wilt. By careful 
selection of resistant plants, a wilt-resist- 
ing variety was bred. The upland cot- 
ton in Texas was attacked by the Mexi- 
can boll weevil, which is gradually in- 
festing the cotton-growing region. You 
will learn more about this insect in the 
chapter on Crop Enemies. Although it 
has done great damage, the boll weevil 
has been of some use, as it is causing 
southern farmers to improve their cul- 
tural methods. 

Seed Selection. — Plants for seed 
should be selected with care in the 
field, and marked before picking begins. They should be 
thrifty, free from disease, and should have many and large bolls. 
The fiber should be long rather than short. The selected seed 
should be planted in a separate plot and carefully tended. From 
the best plants seed should be saved for next year's seed i)lot, and 
from the others seed for the field crop. No seed ' runs out ' 
more quickly than cotton where careful selection is not ])racticcd. 

Flax. — Flax is another valuable fiber plant. The long, fine, 
tough fibers of its stem are used for making linen. Flax seed, or 




Staple, or fiber, showing dif- 
ference in length between up- 
land and sea island cotton. 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



159 



linseed as its seed are often called, are, like cotton seed, rich in oil. 
This linseed oil is used for mixing paints and varnishes and for 
other purposes. The hulls and meal from which the oil has been 
extracted are a valuable stock feed, rich in fer- 
tilizing elements. 

Cultivation. — Flax prefers a cool, moist cli- 
mate. It thrives on a deep, well-cultivated loam. 
It grows to a height of two or three feet, bearing 
clusters of pretty blue or white flowers at the 
ends of the branches. The best fiber is obtained 
from the stalks of plants that are grown close 
together and are pulled soon after blossoming. 
Usually, ]iowc\'cr, they are sowed thinner and are 
allowed to ripen seed for oil. 

Like cotton, the flax crop has been threatened 
by wilt disease, but of this also a wilt-resisting 
variety has been bred. 

Hemp. — Hemp, like flax, flourishes on a 
moist, fertile soil. If the soil be rich and the 
weather moist and warm, the plants grow rap- 
idly and form long fibers. Stunted ])lants pro- 
duce short, inferior fiber. The fiber, the cells 
of its inner bark, is coarser than flax; it is 
used to make coarse cloth and rope. 



EXERCISE 

1. Grow cotton, flax, and hemp in wcll-cuUivated 
plots. 

2. Sow some of the flax thick and some thin. 
Observe the difference in branching and flowering. 

3. Separate and examine the flax and the hemp flber. Compare 
them with cotton. 



A, flax fiber; B, hemp 
fiber 



l6o AGRICULTURE 



TOBACCO 



The Tobacco Plant. — America has contributed few agricultural 
plants to the world. Among these are the white potato, the sweet 
potato, corn, and tobacco. Potatoes and corn are useful foods; 
the tobacco is not a food plant. 

Uses. — The leaves are used for chewing and smoking. They 
contain a stimulating compound called nic'o tine. In its pure 
condition nicotine is a' poison, and every man who uses tobacco 
takes into his system more or less of this poison. 

History. — The Indians raised little patches of tobacco and 
used the pipe for private comfort and public ceremony. In the 
sixteenth century, the weed was introduced into Europe and its 
use became a fashion and a habit. Cultivating the crop for the 
European market was one of the first American agricultural 
industries. The estates on which it was cultivated were called 
' plantations ' because, instead of being raised like most agri- 
cultural crops, the seeds were raised in a seed bed and the young 
plants set in the field. 

Range. — Tobacco grows from the equator to Canada. It is 
raised chiefly in the eastern part of the United States, but is suc- 
cessfully grown on the irrigated lands of the West. Its quality 
depends largely on the amount and season of water supply, and 
where this is regulated by irrigation, tobacco proves a sure and 
profitable crop. 

Soil and Climate. — No other field crop is so much affected by 
conditions of soil. A variety changes its character entirely on 
different soils. On a fertile clay, it may produce large, heavy 
plants with leaves rich in oil or gum, which cure dark red or 
brown'. On a light, sandy soil, this same variety will produce 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



l6l 



thin leaves of fine texture, which cure yellow or mahogany color. 
Bright tobacco cannot be raised on clay, nor heavy tobacco on 
sandy land. 

The farmer must consider his soil and climate, and must grow 
the variety to which these are adapted. While the type of tobacco 
depends upon soil and climate, the grade depends upon cultiva- 
tion, fertilizing, and curing. 




Cost. — The raising of the crop requires skill and experience and 
prompt attention to every detail. The rewards of success are 
large, but the risks are many and the cost of producing the crop is 
great. Tobacco is an expensive crop in several ways; it costs 
the farmer much labor, it costs the farm much fertility, — and if 
weather conditions be unfavorable, in spite of labor and fertility 
the cro]) is a failure. 

Cultivation. — Tobacco plants are grown in a carefully prepared 
seed-bed, often under cover to protect them from frost and insects. 



l62 



AGRICULTURE 



The land for the crop is plowed deep, harrowed fine, and well 

supplied with plant food. 
The plants must be transplanted, preferably when the weather 

is moist and cloudy, and given frequent shallow cultivation to 

keep the soil free frorri weeds 
and in good condition. They 
must be protected against 
worms by poison or by picking. 
They are ' topped,' — that is, 
the main stem is broken off, 
leaving a certain number of 
to make the leaves 





p. 

49.5 lbs. 




[paT] 












27.5 lbs. 








N. 

36 lbs. 










1 
N. 

I7.5lto. 



Leaves 



This diagram shows the amount of fertility 
removed from an acre of soil by a crop of to- leaveS, 
bacco prgducing looo lbs. of leaves and 17.0 ^^ ^^^^^ -^ ^j^^ ^^^ ^^jj , ^^^ 
lbs. of stalks. ^ - 

time of ripening as possible. 
After the plant is topped, in its efforts to continue its growth it 
throws out ' suckers,' or shoots, from the joints of the stem; 



::-F- 




Tobacco Seedlings from Light, Medium, and Heavy Seed 

these must be kept pinched off so as not to lessen the leaves' 
supply of food. 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



163 



Slight changes in color and texture indicate to the experienced 
hand and eye when the plants are ripe. The leaves are then 
pulled or the plants cut, and they are cured, — often by carefully 
regulated artificial heat. The curing, sorting, and handling of 
the crop are operations that require skill, practice, and much labor. 

Fertilizers. — Tobacco is a greedy feeder which requires large 
quantities of food, especially of nitrogen and potash. For heavy 
tobacco, these are supplied largely by stable manure and by gen- 
eral enrichment of the soil. For bright tobacco, commercial 
fertihzers are generally used to give the leaf the desired color 
and texture. Crop rotation, manures, and 
legumes are necessary to keep up the 
fertility of the soil. 

Place in Rotation. — As tobacco is such 
a large consumer of plant food, it should 
be preceded or followed by a nitrogen- 
gathering crop, such as cowpeas or 
clover. It is often followed by wheat or 
other small grain that uses the plant food 
which it leaves in the surface soil. 

Seed Selection. — The seed plants should 
be carefully selected and should be those 
which come nearest the farmer's ideal of 
what he would like every plant to be. 
They should be healthy plants with well- 
shaped leaves, and as free from suckers 
as possible. Just before it blooms, the 
flower head should be inclosed in a paper bag, in order to 
prevent its receiving pollen from inferior plants. 

The seed should be graded, so as to separate the different 
sizes and weights. Large and hca^•y seeds produce strong and 




Toi'.Acco Plant 
Bagged for seed 



l64 AGRICULTURE 

vigorous plants. By careful field selection of seed every year, 
a farmer can grade up and improve the quality and yield of a 
variety. 

EXERCISE 

1. Raise several plants of tobacco, trying to give them as favorable 
conditions as possible. Leave one or two of the best plants to mature 
seed. 

2. Top the other plants at different heights, leaving from eight to 
fourteen leaves. What difference does this make in the leaves? 

3. Pull and dry the leaves. Take an equal weight of tobacco leaves 
and of dry fodder and burn both. What difference is there in the way 
they burn? It is the large amount of potash in the tobacco which 
causes it to burn so readily. Compare the amount of ash left by 
the tobacco leaves and by the fodder. Can you account for the 
difference ? 



SUGAR-PRODUCmO PLANTS 

There are two great sugar-producing crops that are raised in 
the United States, — sugar cane in the South and sugar beets in 
the North. 

Sugar Cane. — Sugar cane is a tropical member of the grass 
family. It is cultivated for the sweet juice laid up in the cells of 
its stalk. Sirup, molasses, and sugar are made from this juice. 
Sugar cane is extensively grown in the South, especially in the 
Gulf States. 

It is a perennial, reproduced by cuttings, which are pieces of the 
stalk containing ' eyes,' or buds. Generally, two or three crops 
are grown from a planting. In spring or fall the stalk cuttings are 
buried in furrows. They soon begin to send up sprouts. The 
crop is cultivated like corn. Like corn, it requires a fertile soil 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



165 



and it requires a great deal of water. If water and plant food 
be supplied, it will thrive on any well-drained soil. 

The stalks are cut in the fall, and 
crushed in mills. The juice is boiled 
and evaporated to form a sirup. 
There are several different methods 
of evaporating this juice so as to 
separate it into sugar and molasses. 

Sorghum. — Sorghum is another 
member of the grass family which 
has a sweet juice in its cells. Sor- 
ghum thrives where it is too cool 
and too dry for sugar cane. Its 
juice is extracted and boiled down 
to form sirup or molasses. By selec- 
tion of seed from plants rich in 
sugar, the per cent of sugar has been 
largely increased. 

Sugar Beets. — The sugar beet in- 
dustry was developed in Europe by 
selecting and cultivating beets so 
as to increase the quantity of sugar 
they contain. Small pieces of the 
roots were tested, and those having 
the largest amount of sugar were 
planted for seed. Thus the quantity 
of sugar has been increased from eight to eighteen per cent. 
Roots have been raised of which twenty-five per cent, one fourth 
of the whole, was pure sugar. 

Within recent years the sugar beet industry has been introduced 
into the United States. A section of the northern part of the 




Sugar Cane 



i66 



AGRICULTURE 



country, from the Pacific to the iVtlantic, is well adapted to the 
crop. The soil must be fertile, well drained, and well cultivated. 

. The mature beets are dug 
and sent to the factory. There 
they are cleaned, the juice ex- 
tracted, and the sugar obtained 
from it by evaporation. 

Sugar, like cotton, is formed 
from the carbon of the air; 
therefore, if the leaves and 
pulp be returned to the fields 
or used for stock feed and 
the manure put on the land, 
the crop removes little fertil- 
ity from the soil. 



EXERCISE 

1. Cultivate some specimens 
of the crop plants mentioned 
here. Where the climate is too 
cool for sugar cane, sorghum 
may thrive. 

2. Compare the sweetness of 
cane cut from green plants, 
from those just about to ilower, 

A sugar beet root which tested 24 per cent , . , • , , 

sugar. An acre of such beets would yield ^^'^'^ ^^"^^ ^hose that have gone 

42,000 lb. of sugar. to seed. 




THE ORCHARD AND ITS CARE 

Our common fruits — apple, pear, quince, peach, plum, 
apricot, and cherry — all belong to the rose family ; so do 
the strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry. The orange, lemon, 



FIELD. ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



167 



and lime belong to the citrus family, which is a native of 
Asia. 

The Apple. — The apple is more widely grown in the United 
States than any other fruit. Like 
the Caucasian race, it is not a 
native of America, but finds here 
a congenial home. It thrives in 
all sections and on almost all soils. 
There are hundreds of varieties, 
differing in flavor, appearance, and 
ripening season. By selecting sum- 
mer, fall, and winter apples ad- 
apted to his locality, every farmer 
can have the fresh fruit through- 
out the year. 

The Pear. — There are two 
groups of pears cultivated in the 
United States. The European vari- 
eties, derived from the native pear 
of Europe, are the better flavored; 
the Oriental ones, derived from the 
native pear of China and Japan, 
are vigorous growers and j)roduc- 
tive, but are usually inferior in 
quality of fruit. The Bartlett and Seckel are European pears, the 
Kieffcr is an Oriental one. 

Standard pears are those grafted or budded on pear roots; 
dwarfs are those grown on (juince roots; they are smaller and come 
into bearing earlier. 

The Peach. — Break open a ])each stone and notice how much 
the seed resembles an almond. The two are closelv related, and 



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sM ^^^^Ri "^S^B 


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Blossoms ok Chinese Ci.ing Peach 



l68 AGRICULTURE 

both are natives of the Old World. The peach thrives best in a 
sandy soil. It does well on a clay soil, however, if it be well drained. 
Peach trees come into bearing early and are short-lived. They 
are often planted between apple trees in an orchard; they mature 
and can be cut out before the apple trees begin to bear. 

The Cherry. — The cherry, like the peach, prefers a light soil. 
There are many varieties of wild cherries in America, but most 
of our cultivated cherries are derived from two European varieties, 
the hearts and the mo rel los. The morellos, which are sour, are 
the hardier. 

The Plum. — Plums prefer a clay soil. Those grown on peach 
roots, however, thrive on sandy soils. The gage and other Euro- 
pean varieties thrive in the northern states; the Japanese ones 
are better adapted to the South; in the Northwest only the native 
American plums are hardy. 

The Lemon, Orange, and Citrange. — Oranges and lemons are 
tender tropical trees. They are grown in our southern states, 
but even in Florida the weather is sometimes severe enough to 
injure or even to destroy them. 

Scientists are trying to breed hardy fruits of this family, and 
doubtless they will succeed. A new fruit, the cit range', has been 
created by crossing the little hardy Japanese orange with the 
Florida orange. The citrange is so acid that it resembles the lemon 
more than the orange; it is quite hardy in the Gulf and South 
Atlantic states. 

How Fruit Trees are Raised. — If you wish a crop of a certain 
kind of corn, you plant seed of that variety. But this is not the 
way in which you get a desired variety of apples or pears. Their 
seed do not ' come true,' as farmers say. Seedlings, or trees from 
seeds, instead of resembling their parents, may be like the wild 
fruits from which they originated. You may plant seed from a 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 169 

large, sweet, red apple and raise a tree bearing small, sour, green 
fruit. 

Most fruit trees are grown by budding, a method which has 
already been mentioned. The process requires considerable care 
and skill. Farmers usually prefer to leave it to professional fruit- 
growers and to buy trees ready for planting. How does the fruit- 
grower raise a tree? Take an apple, for instance. 

The seeds are planted in the spring. The little seedhng is 
grafted the next winter or budded the following summer with 
a graft or bud of the desired variety. 

Grafting. — Grafting is done during the dormant season when 
the tree is not growing. The top of the seedling, or ' stock ' 
as it is called in grafting, is cut off. The ' sci'on,' which is a straight 
vigorous twig of last year's growth of the desired variety, is cut 
so as to fit the stock as closely as possible. The cambium of one 
must touch that of the other, for this is the living part of the tree 
and through it the sap must pass from one to the other. If the 
cambiums do not unite, the scion dies for lack of nourishment. 
The joining of the scion and stock must be air-tight; it is covered 
with grafting wax, made of beeswax, tallow, and linseed oil. Then 
the graft is wrapped to hold the scion firmly in place. 

Budding. — Budding is sometimes preferred to grafting. Bud- 
ding is done in the summer during the growing season. A bud 
from the desired variety is inserted into a T-shaped cut in the bark 
of the stock or seedling. The joining is covered with wax and 
wrapped to exclude the air and to hold the bud in place. The next 
spring this wrapping is removed. The top of the stock is cut off 
so as to throw sap and growth into the bud shoot. 

Transplanting. — The grafted or budded tree is left to grow 
one or two or more years. Then it is set out in the orchard. It 
is called one or two or three years old, according to the age of the 



I/O 



AGRICULTURE 



bud or graft. The root is a year older. A vigorous tree, one or 
two years old, is generally better than one of more advanced age. 
The larger the tree, the more difficult it is to transplant it without 
injury to the root system. 

Twig Budding or Grafting. — By budding or grafting its branches. 
We can have many varieties on a tree. One apple tree may bear 






^^,^1131%/ 



The Course of Failure through Five Years 

This tree is improperly set, iinpruned, uncultivated, and neglected; it grows slowly, is 
badly-shaped and diseased. 

summer and fall and winter varieties; there are grafted trees 
which yield hundreds of different kinds. Perhaps, if you experi- 
ment carefully, you may succeed in grafting a branch. Graft- 
ing is generally used for apples and pears, but budding is preferred 
for plums and peaches. 

Orchard Location. — The location of an orchard is a matter of 
importance. It is not planted for one season or one crop, but for 
ten or twenty or more. It is usually desirable to have an orchard, 
especially a small one, near the dwelling house. Orchards on 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



171 



elevated rolling land are less apt to be injured by frost than those- 
on lowlands where air does not circulate so freely. Most fruit 
trees prefer a fairly fertile clay loam. Orchards, like other crops, 






The Course of Success through Five Years 

This free is properly planted, properly pruned, and cultivated ; it grows fast and yields 

early and well. 

do not thrive and give good results on poor soil. The land must 
be well drained, either naturally or artificially. 

Selection of Varieties. — Varieties should be selected which are 
adapted to the soil and climate and to the purj)ose in view. Some 
varieties are good in one section and poor in another. An instance 
of this is the Albemarle or Newtown pippin. It is the finest and 
best-flavored of apples when grown in a limited section of Virginia, 
North Carolina, and California; out of this section it is an ordinary 
and rather insipid fruit. 



172 AGRICULTURE 

A small orchard for home use should have varieties which give 
a succession of fruit throughout the season. The varieties in a 
market orchard should be the most salable ones adapted to the 
section. Near a good market, summer and fall fruits are often 
profitable. At a distance from market, varieties that keep well 
and bear handling and storage should be raised. 

Transplanting Trees. — Young fruit trees can be set out in fall 
or spring; spring planting is usually preferred. On page 63 there 
are general suggestions for transplanting, but there are some special 
points which should be regarded in the case of trees. A portion 
of the soil should be dug away, and the roots should be loosened 
and carefully withdrawn. Bruised and broken roots should be 
trimmed off. In resetting it, the subsoil should be loosened at the 
bottom of the hole, and a httle fine soil put in. Then the tree 
should be set with its largest root in the direction of the prevailing 
wind. 

Orchard Cultivation. — After the young orchard is set, it should 
be cultivated. No farmer expects to make a crop of corn or tobacco 
without care and tillage. Without care and tillage, it is just as 
impossible to raise good orchard crops. It is money and time 
wasted to buy and transplant trees and then neglect them. 

The orchard should not be used as a grain field nor a pasture. 
This does not mean that crops, often profitable ones, cannot be 
raised in an orchard. But the trees must be the first consideration. 
Stock, especially cattle, should never be kept in a young orchard, 
as they injure and often kill the trees. Small grain should never 
be grown in it; grain and trees make growth and re(|uire much 
moisture at the same time, and the trees are robbed of food and 
moisture. Clean crops which destroy humus should be followed 
by cover or catch crops cut for hay or plowed under in the early 
spring. 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



173 



Care should be taken that neither teams nor tools break or scar 
the trees, and that the j)low does not go close and deep enough to 
break their roots. After a few years the orchard may be ' put 
down ' in grass, such as blue grass or orchard grass, though 




Spraying Fruit Trees 



a compact sod should not be allowed to form around the 
trees. 

Fertilizers. — The best fertilizers for fruits are those containing 
potash which improves the quality of the fruit. There is no better 
fertilizer than wood ashes. 

Spraying. — Trees sometimes need medicine as well as food. 
Fungous diseases and insects often attack fruit trees and, if un- 
checked, cause death. Some of these diseases are very contagious 
and widespread. It requires care and watchfulness to keep them 



174 



AGRICULTURE 



in check. In the chapter on Crop Enemies you are told about some 
of these pests and the best methods of controUing them. 

It is as important to destroy these enemies when there is no 
crop as when there is a heavy one. They injure the trees and lessen 
future crops. Fruit buds are formed one season for the next, and 
the tree needs to be in a healthy, vigorous condition, to store up 
material and to provide for the next crop. 

Thinning. — Where there is a heavy 
crop, it is well to thin it by removing 
some of the fruit while small. If all 
be left, it is likely to split or break 
the trees. Moreover, the trees are often 
so exhausted by fruiting a large crop 
one year that they form few fruit buds, 
and the next season yield little or noth- 
ing. A moderate crop every year is 
better for the trees and better for the 
farmer. 

Pruning. — Experience has shown 
that there are better results where tree 
growth is trained. Hence, training or 
pruning has become an important part 
of orchard work. 

The orchardist should decide what 
shape he wishes his trees to have and 
top, and its weight causes it to fall prune them accordingly. When trees 

and split the tree ; this is prevented , , • i !• 

. , r.u • wu ^ V, V, are pruned so as to give a low, spreadmg 

in the case of the right-hand branch "■ 1 & J r o 

by first making an incision in the grOWth, they Suffcr IcSS from wind and 

lower side. from drought, because the low branches 

keep the ground moist. It is less troublesome to prune and 
spray them and to gather the fruit. 




Pruning 

The top branch on the left is prop- 
erly cut, and that on the right is im- 
properly cut ; observe the difference 
in the healing of the two. The lower 
left-hand branch is sawed from the 



FIELD. ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 175 

Growth should be directed as much as possible by rubbing off 
buds and cutting off twigs that interlap and grow toward the 
center. This will prevent the necessity of cutting large branches 
later, will keep the center open to air and sunlight, and will lighten 
the labor of spraying and of fruit-gathering. Except in old, neg- 
lected orchards, severe pruning is rarely necessary. When a large 
branch is cut, a clean, close cut should be made so that it will 
heal without leaving a stump. The wound should be painted with 
white lead to prevent rotting. 

Pruning in winter increases the yield of fruit, in summer increases 
the growth of wood. The worst time for pruning is in the spring 
when the buds begin to start. Wounds made then are slow to heal. 

EXERCISE 

1. You will find it interesting to try to bud and graft some fruit trees. 
Unless you are careful about every detail, your buds and grafts will not 
live. 

2. Transplant and raise one or more fruit trees, observing the 
suggestions on pages 63 and 172. 

3. Compare the blossoms and leaves of the different fruit trees of 
your section. 

4. Compare ripe fruits in order to see what forms the edible portion. 
Take two apples and two pears. Cut one of each lengthwise and one 
crosswise. The edible portion is the thickened lower part of the calyx 
and the enlarged stem. Take some stone fruits — the [)each, plum, 
and cherry — and examine their parts. The edible portion is the soft 
juicy part of the calyx leaves. The seed or true fruit is inclosed in the 
stone in the center of what we call the fruit. Can you think of any 
reason why these seeds are not edible and the seed covering is? 

5. Prune a tree by cutting off two small branches that interlap or 
grow toward the center. Cut one branch close to the tree trunk, and 
leave the other two or three inches long. What difference is there in 
the way that they heal? 




1/6 AGRICULTURE 

THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 

Value of Farm Garden. — The farm garden should always be 
one of the first considerations. It provides for the table, and per- 
haps for market also, the vegetables and small fruits which those 
who live in cities have to obtain at much greater expense from the 
market and green grocery. 

The garden should be plowed and planted at the proper time, 

and tilled so as to produce the best 
results. It should furnish a succession 
of seasonable vegetables, supplying 
Hand Weeper wholesome and palatable food. In 

no other way can the same outlay of time, labor, and money 
give greater returns. 

Location and Cultivation. — The garden should be convenient 
to the house. It is better to have the beds long and narrow, rather 
than short and broad; thus more work can be done by horse and 
by wheel tools. By frecjuent cultivation under proper conditions, 
its soil should be made a fine deep seed-bed. It should be thor- 
oughly fertilized. For most vegetables the soil cannot be too rich; 
usually, the more rapid their grow^th, the better their texture and 
flavor. 

No untilled corners nor hedgerows should be left in a garden to 

shelter and breed weeds and insect 

pests. Nor should the soil be left idle 

to waste plant food, grow up in weeds, 

and infest the land with weed seeds. 

Weeding or Thinning Hook 

As soon as early vegetables are gath- 
ered, their rows or plots should be planted in late ones or 
seeded in some crop, such as clover or rye, to turn under in the 
spring. 




FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 177 

In the garden, as in the field, rotation of crops should be prac- 
ticed. Diseases are increased and insect pests harbored by having 
ihe same crop in the same place year after year. 

Truck Farming. — Truck farming, or market gardening, is an 
important and, in many localities, a profitable branch of farming. 
Earliness and productiveness are the qualities most sought for its 
products. The soil must be a light, warm one that will produce 
early crops; by liberal use of stable manure and commercial 
fertilizers, it can be made productive. 

The great market garden of the United States is a narrow strip 
extending fifteen hundred miles along the Atlantic Coast. This 
coast region is free from late frosts in spring and early ones in fall. 
The soil is light, warm, and sandy ; it is made very fertile with ma- 
nures and fertilizers. There is a similar soil on the Pacific Coast. 

Surplus Products. — There is a frequent and direct loss of truck 
products through inability to market them promptly and profitably. 
The farmer may be unable to secure transportation or his products 
may come in when the market is glutted. There are always some 
unsalable inferior fruits and vegetables. Sometimes the year's 
balance is changed from loss to profit by putting these surplus 
products into salable forms instead of leaving them to rot in the 
field. 

In canneries many perishable products may be put in shape to 
be stored and held for market. Fruit may be dried, or evaporated, 
— that is, dried by artificial heat — or the juice may be extracted 
and sold as cider or vinegar. Surplus fruit, melons, and vegetables 
may be utilized by feeding them to stock. 

Root Crops. — Root crops make their growth underground. 
Some of these, such as the sweet potato, are enlarged fibrous roots; 
some, such as the turnip,^are enlarged taproots; others, such as the 
white potato, are not roots, but tubers, or enlarged underground 



178 



AGRICULTURE 




5>J^^ 






Stems; bulbs, such as the onion, arc thickened underground leaves. 

All these crops need a mellow, fertile soil that can be pushed aside 
<5^^ ^ by the growing root, tuber, or 

bulb, and that supplies food ele- 
ments fully and freely. 

Where the soil is not natu- 
rally loose and porous, it should 
be plowed deep and made fine 
and mellow. On heavy soils 
ridge cultivation may be better; 
on light soils level cultivation 
lessens the evils of drought and 
promotes the use of cultivating 
tools. The crops for winter 
keeping should be harvested in 
dry weather. They should be 
kept in a cool, dark, well- 
drained, w^ll-ventilated place. 
Potato plant, showing root sxstem and Tumips, ru'ta-ba'gas, man'gel- 

growth of tubers. wur'zcls, sugar bccts, and carrots 

are raised in some sections as field crops for stock feed in winter. 

They are often sowed on wheat or oat stubble. English farmers 

say that their breeds of cattle and sheep have greatly improved 

since root crops are raised and fed. These crops are being more 

and more largely grown in the United States. 

Potatoes. — Potatoes, sweet and white, arc the vegetables most 

widely raised for table use. Sweet potatoes require a long growing 

season and so thrive best in the South; they prefer a porous, 

sandy soil. 
The white potato is raised in all sections of the United States. 

It is a greedy feeder, and thrives best in a fertile, deep, well-drained 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



179 



loam. Seed should be selected from plants bearing a large number 
of good-sized, well-shaped potatoes. 

Onions. — Millions of bushels of onions are imported to the 
United States every year; they 
might be raised at home, put- 
ting millions of dollars into the 
pockets of American farm- 
ers. Onions are grown from 
seeds or from sets. Cheaper, 
better, and earlier onions are 
grown by raising plants from 
seeds in seed beds or hotbeds 
and transplanting them. 

Tomato. — The tomato has 
a trailing stem and needs to 
be trained to a trellis or stake. 
Sometimes the branches are 
pinched otT and the main 
stem is tied to a support and 
has its bud pinched off at a 
height of about four feet. 
Thus trained, it gives better 
results in hot, dry weather, 
and yields several clusters of 
large, perfect fruit. 

Celery. — Celery is a j)opu- 
lar vegetable, and is not diffi- 
cult to grow, though most Tomak. I'lant trained to threk stems 

home gardeners suppose that it is. The plants are grown from 
seed in a hotbed and then transplanted to a fertile S])ot. They 
must be well watered and well cultivated. Instead of heaping up 





f -^'^K^ 



1 80 AGRICULTURE 

a bank of earth to blanch, or whiten, celery, a board can be set on 
each side of the row so as to keep out the sunlight. 

Asparagus. — Asparagus is another pop- 
ular but little raised vegetable. Beds once 
established last a long time. Asparagus 
• should not be cut until the plants have 
been three years set. 

Legumes. — Peas, string beans, or snaps, 
and the shell beans, lima, navy, and but- 
ter beans, arc legumes. These require a 
> fairly fertile soil; if they are given other 
plant food, the summer-growing ones get 
their nitrogen from the air. 

Melon Family. — To the melon family 
Asparagus Plant 

belong muskmelon, watermelon, cucum- 
ber, scjuash or cymling, and pum.pkin. Different as these seem, 
they are alike in many ways. Most of them are tropical or sub- 
tropical plants and very tender; they must not be planted until 
danger of frost is over and the ground is warm. They need 
light, mellow, well-drained soil. If planted near one another, 
members of this family mix. They all have some very trouble- 
some insect enemies, beetles and bugs. 

Sweet Corn. — Sweet corn requires the same cultivation and 
care as does field corn, which has been described. It should never 
be near enough to mix with the field varieties. 

Okra, Cabbage. — Okra is grown in hot, dry sections, but does 
not thrive in cool, moist ones; cabbage, on the other hand, heads 
better in a cool climate. 

Herbs. — In every country garden there should be an herb bed 
for seasoning and flavors. Here should grow such herbs as sage, 
lavender, spearmint, thyme, mar'jo ram, and sa'vo ry. Sweet 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AxND GARDEN CROPS 



I8l 



herbs give best results in a moderately fertile place ; on very rich 
soil, the oil supply is small. In order to develop their oil, herbs 
need a sunny exposure. 

Small Fruits. — Nor is the country garden comi)lele without some 
berries, bush fruits, and grapevines. These should not be planted 




A Field of Pumpkins 

along fences and in corners. They should be set where they can 
be well cultivated. They need air, sunhght, and good culture. 

Raspberries. — Raspberries prefer a fertile, rather moist loam. 
In warm climates they thrive better when sheltered from the midday 
and afternoon sun. Canes that put forth one spring bear fruit 
the second summer. After bearing one crop, they die and new ones 
grow from the roots. The old canes should be cut in fall or early 
spring. Annual prunings, clean cultivation, and an occasional 



IcS2 



AGRICULTURE 



u^^is-^:MkMM 



■^^ 




STRAWliF.RRIES IJNDER GRAPEVINES 



mulch of coarse manure will secure the best results of which a 
^■ariety is capable. 

Blackberries. — Blackberries require practically the same culti- 
vation as raspberries. The cultivated varieties are more produc- 
tive than the 
wild ones. 

Strawber- 
ries. — Straw- 
berries are 
greedy feeders 
and it is im- 
possible to 
make the soil 
too rich for 

them. Wood ashes is an excellent fertilizer, as it increases both 
the quantity and the quality of the yield. Berries grown on a 
sandy soil are firmer and better-colored than those grown on clay 
soil. 

Among the best-bearing varieties are those that have imperfect, 
pistil-bearing blossoms. To secure a good yield, these must be 
grown near plants with perfect blossoms. Usually the bed is 
plowed up the second or third year and a new one set. 

Bush Fruits. — The most generally cultivated bush fruits are 
the currant and gooseberry. They prefer a cool, moist soil; 
currants especially are not grown successfully in the South. The 
English gooseberries are large and well-flavored, but are subject 
to disease. In many sections native varieties of gooseberries, 
plums, and grapes grow well, while foreign varieties do not thrive. 
Grapes. — Grapes belong to the vine family. Most of the grapes 
raised in the United States, such as the Catawba and the Concord, 
have been developed from native wild varieties. The wine and 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



183 



table grapes, which arc nati\'cs of Europe and Asia, are suc- 
cessfully raised in California and in sections of the South. 

Grapes thrive best in 
warm, fertile soil, with 
sunny exposure. They 
are grown froin cuttings 
and layers. The vines 
are trained to trellises or 
stakes, and should be 
well pruned during the 
dormant season. It 
should be remembered 
that " fruit forms upon 
shoots that grow this 
year from eyes that were 
formed on the wood that 
grew last year." 

After the harvest is 
over, grapevines should 
not be neglected, left to 
be choked with weeds 
and injured by fungous 
growth. They need to be kept thrifty and vigorous so as to mature 
new wood and develop healthy buds for next season's growth. 

EXERCISE 

1. Raise on well-prepared, well-cultivated plots the vegetables which 
succeed best in your localitv. Select good varieties and try to improve 
them. How can you do this? 

2. Compare the parts of different plants which make their growth 
underground, — such as a sweet potato, a turnip, a white potato, and 
an onion. 




CourtOBy of New Mexico At;ric'iiltiiral Stiitiun 
GKArKS 



1 84 



AGRICULTURE 



3. Grow some beets in mellow, well-drained soil, and some of the 
same variety in a hard, cloddy clay. Is there any difference in their 
appearance ? 

4. Leave where they grew the stalks of some corn and the tops 
of some white potatoes. In three or four weeks compare what is left of 
them. What has become of the potato tops? Can you think of any 
reason for this? 

5. Why do you plant beans and peas shallower than corn ? Can you 
explain why the young peas and beans grow so much more rapidly 
than tomatoes and onions started from seed ? 

6. Some of our common vegetables, such as cabbage, tomato, and 
sweet potato, are of tropical origin. To give them a longer growing 
season, start these plants in seed beds, or hotbeds which have a layer of 
manure under the soil, and transplant them to the garden. 

7. You will enjoy raising some berries and grapevines for yourself. 
They are not much trouble, and give large returns in luscious fruit. 

THE FLOWER GARDEN 



Flowers. — 

We are not 
satisfied with 
merely useful 
things. We 
desire beauti- 
ful ones. It is 
not enough 
for us that our 
earth brings 
forth corn and 
potatoes. We 

want, we need, flowers, beautiful of color, graceful of form, fra- 
grant of scent. Around and in the house they arc a constant 
source of pleasure. 




A Vine-clad Porch 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



185 



Selection. — Our cultivated flowers, like our agricultural plants, 
have been produced from wild ones. They have been selected 
for beauty as the vegetables have been chosen for use. In many 
cases our flowers and crop plants are very closely related. The 
hollyhock is near kin to the cotton. Its large, many-colored, double 
flowers are the result of long-continued selection and reselection. 




Courtesy of Messrs. Burpee ^- Co. 



Crimson California Poppies 

The Crimson California Poppy. — An instance will show you 
how this is done. Mr. Luther Burbank, who has been mentioned 
before, is a flower lover as well as a skillful breeder of useful plants. 
One day he was looking at a held of California poppies, yellow in 
the sunlight. His quick eye detected one blossom that had * a 
thread of crimson on the inside of one of the petals.' He saved 
and planted the seed of the crimson-streaked poppy. It produced 



1 86 



AGRICULTURE 



yellow poppies some of Avhich were marked with red. Seed was 
saved from those showing most red. In nine years, by this con- 
tinued careful selection, a 
brilHant crimson poppy was 
produced, lil;e its yellow an- 
cestor in all respects except 
color. 

Annuals. — Hardy annuals, 
such as a lys'sum, nas tiir'- 
tium, morning-glory, California 
poppy, pansy, poppy, phlox, 
sweet pea, and zin'ni a, can be 
sown in the open ground in 
May or earlier. The semi- 
hardy and tender annuals, such 
as por tu la'ca, require more 
warmth for their germination 
and growth. The seed of 




Courtesy nl N 



these should not be planted until the 
ground is warm. 

Some annuals, such as the pansy, 
thrive in shady places, but most of them 
prefer full sunlight. They need deep, 
fertile, mellow soil. 

Seed Beds. — Most annuals thrive better if raised 
in seed beds and transplanted. A good seed bed is 
a shallow box with its bottom open enough to secure 
good drainage. It should be filled with fine, rich, 
well-packed sandy loam, kept moist and warm. 
Most flower seeds are small, and care must be taken 
not to cover them deep ; if this be done, they will not germinate 




Carnation 
Pinks 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 187 

Nor must the seed bed be watered so freely as to form a crust or 
rot the seeds. 

Flowering Plants. — Many of our flowering plants are biennials 
and perennials. Among these are the peony, hollyhock, ver be'na, 
chrys an'thc mum, clem'a tis, honeysuckle, and rose. Some of 
these are raised from seeds, but most are grown from cuttings of 
roots or stems or from division of roots. 

Among the most popular perennials are some tubers and bulbs. 
Like agricultural root crops, flowering ones need deep, fertile, well- 
drained soil. Among the spring blossoming bulbous plants arc 
the odorous hy'a f inth, the brilliant tu'lip, the fragrant and bright- 
colored nar cis'sus, daf fo dil, and jon'quil, the graceful snowdrop, 
and the sweet-scented lily of the valley. Later in the season 
bloom the beautiful lilies and the showy gla di'o li and dah'lias. 

Roses. — Of all flowers, perhaps the general favorite is the rose, 
to which has been applied the title of ' queen of flowers.' It 




k()si-:s 

has for its own the entire blooming season of the year. It has all 
charms, — fragrance, grace, beauty, and variety of color. Roses 
need sunshine and a deep, fertile, welLdraincd soil. Hardy 
varieties will endure a good deal of neglect, but no flower better 
repays intelligent care. 

Success in raising Flowers. — If you wish to succeed in raising 
flowers, you must study the nature and the needs of the varieties 



l88 AGRICULTURE 

you wish to grow. Their preferences as to soil, moisture, and 
sunlight must be regarded. They must have careful cultivation, 
the soil being kept stirred on the surface, but not so deep as to 
interfere with their roots. 





H 


[ 


i 


j^^&'K 


pi 






1 


h 


1 


'/i% ^^^^1 



A Group of Water Lilies 

Many flowers, such as sweet peas, have their blossoming season 
prolonged by keeping the blossoms picked so as to prevent the 
maturing of seed. 

A few plants well cared for give far better results than a large 
number poorly tended or neglected. 



EXERCISE 



1. Set aside a part of your garden plot for flowers. Plant some hardy 
' annuals, such as phlox and nasturtium. 

2. Compare an American Beauty or other cultivated rose with the 
wild rose, or sweetbrier. 



OUTLINE OF CHAPTER FIVE 

CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 

Weeds: 

Some annuals: 

Charlock, chess, corncockle, dog fennel, pigeon grass, cocklebur, 
horse weed, wild lettuce, ragweed, Russian thistle' 
Some biennials : 

Bull thistle, burdock, wild carrot 
Some perennials: 

Bind weed, Canada thistle, dandelion, horse nettle, nut grass, 
oxeye daisy, rib grass, sorrel, wild onion 
Destroyed by 

Clean, cultivated crops 
Preventing the maturing of seed 
Smother crops 
Fungous Diseases: 

Some characteristics of fungi : 

Feed on other plants and animals 
Lack chlorophyl or leaf green 
Reproduce by spores instead of seeds 
Some fungous diseases: 

Blight, black knot, mildew, mold, rot, rust, scab, smut, wilt 
How to protect crops: 
Destroy fungi, — 

On soil, by burning diseased plants 
In soil, by depriving them of host plants 
Plant and breed resistant varieties 
Store fruit and grain when they are dry 
Remove spores from infested seed 
Destroy spores of fungi by 

Dust spray of flowers of sulphur 

Liquid spray of copper sulphate, lime, and water (Bordeaux 
mixture) 



igo AGRICULTURE 

Insect Enemies: 

Characteristics of an insect: 

Breathes through tubes on body 
Has six legs 

Body is in three parts, — head, thorax, and abdomen 
Several life stages, — ■ egg, larva, pupa, imago, or egg, nymph, adult 
Some chewing insects that feed on plants: 

Canker worm, army worm, tent caterpillar, cabbage and tobacco 
worms, cotton boll worm, cutworm, Colorado potato beetle 
Some chewing insects that feed in plants : 

Curculio, borers, Mexican cotton boll weevil 
Some sucking insects: 

Aphides or plant lice, Hessian fly, chinch bug, scale 
Means of controlling : 
Cultural methods, — 

Tillage, fertilizers, trap crops, time of planting, rotation of crops 
Poison, — 

Arsenic for chewing insects 

Contact poisons, such as lime, for sucking insects 
Insect Friends: 

Ladybirds, ground and tiger beetles, dragon and damsel flies, 
ichneumon and tachina flies 
Birds: 

Some useful ones : 

Swallows, cuckoos, woodpeckers, sparrows, wrens, kingbird, 
mocking bird, partridge, Baltimore oriole, bluebird 
Some useful ones that do some harm : 

Robin, catbird, bobolink or rice bird, red-winged blackbird, crow 
Some harmful ones : 

Sharp-shinned hawk. Cooper's hawk, goshawk, duck hawk, 
English sparrow 
How to have bird neighbors : 
Do not disturb their nests 
Put nest boxes and water in convenient places 
Feed birds when snow is on the ground 
Plant mulberries and seed-bearing shrubs 



CHAPTER FIVE 
CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 
WEEDS 

What Weeds Are. — Weeds are well defined as ' plants out of 
place,' those that persist in growing where they are not wanted. 
Usually, they are wild plants. Sometimes they are cultivated ones 
which cannot be kept in bounds. The beautiful Kentucky blue 
grass is a weed when it grows in a hayfieid ; it is not tall enough for 
hay, and it crowds out other grasses that are. 

Weeds are not altogether useless or harmful; they shade the 
land, they supply humus, and they remind farmers that it is time 
to till their crops. Some farmers do not consider the benefits of 
tillage, and think it is necessary to cultivate a crop only often enough 
to keep weeds in check. 

Agricultural Plants. — Our agricultural plants have been se- 
lected from among wild plants for some useful cjuaHty, and brought 
into field, orchard, or garden. They have been cared for so long 
that they have, to a great extent, lost ability to care for themselves. 
Most of their vigor is spent in storing up the products for which 
they are cultivated. They are cotton-bearers, grain-growers, fruit- 
producers. 

Harm done by Weeds. — Weeds, on the other hand, arc used to 
shifting for themselves, and are generally stronger and quicker- 
growing than agricultural plants. They rob crops of food, mois- 
ture, and light. They lessen the quantity, and often injure the 

191 



192 



AGRICULTURE 



quality of the yield. Wheat is damaged by cockle, wool is injured 
by burs, the flavor of milk and butter is affected by wild onions. 

Water hemlock and some other plants 
are poisonous to man and beast. 

How to destroy Weeds. — The good 
farmer tries to destroy weeds wdiile 
young, before they injure the crop. 
They are then easily killed by shal- 
low hoeing with a hand or horse hoe 
or a cultivator with small teeth. If 
weeds are cut off too near the sur- 
face, their roots live and send forth 
new growth; if they are cut off too 
deep dowm, they are only trans- 
planted and grow more vigorously. 

Weed Seed Sowing. — But how do 
weeds come 
in the fields 
where they 
are not 
planted? 
that is a matter to which thev at- 



COCKLEBUR 

Ah 

tend. The farmer is fortunate if he gets 
his field crops sowed as thoroughly as 
those weeds. In the first place, they 
usually produce an enormous number of 
seeds. A single plant will sometimes ma- 
ture a hundred thousand seeds one season. 
To spread these abroad, weeds make 
use of many messengers, — wind, water, birds, beasts, — yes, and 
people, too. Every time you pull off one of the hooked burs which 





Broom Sedge 
Seed carried by wind 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 



193 



has caught fast in your clothing, and throw it down on the 
ground, you are carrying out the cocklebur's plan of seed sowing. 
If you do not wish to reap Ijurs, do not sow them; burn them 
instead. 

Weed Travelers. — Weeds are such great travelers that thev are 
called the ' tramps of the vegetable world.' They do not travel 
only in slow, old-fashioned ways, helped by wind and wave and 
animal. They travel with all the conveniences of the age, — by 
rail and boat. Their seeds are often carried from one country to 
another in hides, in fleeces, in hay, and mixed in other seed, such 
as grass or grain. 

Native and Foreign We'eds. — Few of our native weeds are trouble- 
some in the crop field. They have been used to contending only 
with other native plants, and have not, as it seems, adapted them- 
selves to the struggle "with man and his agricultural tools. They 
retire to the forest and untilled land. 

Our most troublesome weeds have been imported from Europe. 
For centuries they have been struggling for existence there, and they 
are bold, hardy, and persistent. 

Weedless China. —There is one country almost entirely free 
from weeds. That is China. It is an old country, so thickly 
peopled and so occupied with crops that weeds are crowded out. 
This is the only way they are ever destroyed, — by careful tillage 
and by occupying all the land with crops. 

How to keep Weeds in Check. — As it will probably be several 
thousand years before our country is as densely po])ulated as China, 
American farmers must work to keep weeds in check. They can 
do so by good tillage, rotation of crops, occupying the land with 
crops, j)rotecting the insect and bird enemies of weeds, and destroy- 
ing troublesome weeds. 

A farmer who does not fight weeds both out and in his crops is 



194 



AGRICULTURE 



apt to have an infested farm. He lets the daisies go to seed in his 
pasture and they take possession of it. He leaves the thistle in the 
fence corner, the cocklebur and burdock by the brook, and they 
sow thousands of seeds. Perhaps he does not practice rotation of 
crops; certain weeds take advantage of the habits of certain agri- 
cultural plants, and become established with them. He leaves 
land out to 'rest,' and a weed crop grows on the grain stubble. 
A 'resting' field is a weed nursery which raises hosts to occupy 
that and other fields next year. When the farmer plows under 
their ripened seeds, he plants a crop as surely as when he plov/s 
under wheat or oats. The production of a crop of weeds is as 
great a tax on soil fertility as an agricultural crop, such as cowpeas, 
which benefits the farm and the farmer. 

Kjiowledge Needed. — The farmer must understand the nature 
and habits of his crop plants in order to grow them successfully. 
He must understand those of weeds if he is to carry on successful 
war against them. 

Annuals. — There are many troublesome annuals. As a rule, 
they arc not so persistent of growth nor so deep of root as longer- 
Hved plants, and thus are easier to destroy. They usually produce 
seed very freely. Among annual weeds are charlock, chess, corn 
cockle, dog fennel, pigeon grass, bur grass, cocklebur, horse weed, 
wild lettuce, ragweed, and Russian thistle. 

Ragweed. — The ragweed is one of our few troublesome native 
annuals. It has many local names, — bitterweed, hogweed, little 
ragweed, rich weed, Roman wormwood; its botanical name is 
Am bro'si a ar te mfsi ae jo U a. As plants ha\'e so many local 
names, it is a good plan to learn the botanical name, which is the 
same everywhere. Ragweed is found in almost all states east of 
the Rocky Mountains. It branches freely and its leaves are much 
divided. The greenish stamen-bearing and pistil-bearing flowers 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 



195 



are borne in different places on the same plant. It infests culti- 
vated fields, and often 
grows as thick in grain 
stubble as if it had been 
sowed there. 

Ragweed can be de- 
stroyed by late cultivation 
in hoed crops, and by 
plowing grain land and 
sowing on it such crops as 
cowpeas or clover. Stra}' 
ragweed plants along 
fences and streams should 
be cut down before they 
scatter abroad their hosts 
of seeds. 

How to destroy Annuals. 
— Most annuals are easily 
destroyed by clean culti- 
vation of crops, especially 
by late cultivation. As 
far as possible, seeding 
should be prevented. The 
plants should be mowed 
before they flower, or 
burned before the seed 
mature. 

Biennials. — Among our 
most troublesome biennial 
weeds are the bull or pas- 
ture thistle, burdock or great dock, and wild carrot 




Four Common Weeds 

a, amaranth ; 6, crab grass ; c, ragweed ; d, pigeon 
grass 

None 



196 



AGRICULTURE 



of these are native Americans; all have been brought from the 
Old World. 

Wild Carrot. — The wild carrot (Dau'cus card' la), called also 
bird's nest, devil's plague, or Queen Anne's lace, is a troublesome 

biennial, the original of our garden 
carrot. It grows from New England 
southward to Georgia and westward 
to Ohio. It is so troublesome in some 
states that laws have been passed 
against letting it go to seed. The wild 
carrot has a pretty white blossom and 
graceful, finely-cut foliage. It thrives 
on almost any soil and takes posses- 
sion of waste places. The best way to 
destroy it is to pull the young plants 
up by the roots, or to cut them before 
they mature seed. 

How to destroy Biennials. — Bien- 
nials are more difficult to get rid of 
than annuals. When young, they can 
be destroyed by cutting or pulling 
them up. When they are several 
months old, they can be removed only 
by deep cutting with a grubbing hoe, or with a spud, which is 
a sharp, narrow spade. Any plant which escapes the hoe should 
be cut before it blooms. Weeds, especially biennials and peren- 
nials, should never be allowed to mature seed. 

Perennials. — The most troublesome of all weeds are the 

perennials. Most of these long-lived plants are reproduced both 

by seeds and by running roots, and their destruction is difficult. 

Among perennial weeds are the bindweed or morning-glory, 




Wild Carrot 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 



197 



Canada thistle, dandelion, horse nettle or sand brier, nut grass, 
oxcye or white daisy, rib grass or English plantain, sorrel or sour 
weed, and wild onion or iield garlic. Nearly all of these have been 
imported in grass or grain seed from 
Europe. Many of our native poisonous 
plants are perennials. 

Daisy. — The white-and-yellow daisy 
(CJiry san'the mum leu cdn'the mum) is 
a cousin of our much-prized chrysan- 
themum. It has a pretty liowcr, but is 
one of our most troublesome perennial 
weeds. Throughout the eastern part 
of the United States, from Maine to 
North Carolina, farmers regard it as an 
enemy. 

It is not difficult to destroy in culti- 
vated crops, but it spreads so rapidly 
in meadows and pastures that it soon 
crowds out the grasses. It can be 
killed by hoed crops, or checked in hay 
fields by mowing early before it ma- 
tures seed. 

Loco Weed. — The woolly loco weed and the stemless loco weed 
are peculiar poisonous perennials of the Great Plains region. 
They are found both on the prairies and on the foothills and moun- 
tain sides. They are called 'crazy weeds' because their effect 
on stock is like that of alcohol or morphine on human beings. 
Cattle, sheep, and horses that cat these weeds are said to be 'lo- 
coed'; they are affected with mania, refuse all other food, and 
fmally die. Loco causes an immense loss every year to the live- 
stock owners of the West. 




Daisy 



198 



AGRICULTURE 




Stem LESS Loco Weed 
One third natural size 



How to destroy Perennials. — Perennial 

weeds have to be fought in different ways. 
Some yield to clean cultivation of crops. 
Others are so persistent in clean crops that 
they are more easily destroyed by a ' smother ' 
crop, — a sowed crop which makes rapid, 
dense growth, and deprives the weeds of 
light and air. Cowpeas and other quick- 
growing legumes are excellent for this pur- 
pose. 

EXERCISE 

1. We have mentioned here only a few of 
the many weeds troublesome to farmers in the 
United States. Make as complete a collection 
as you can of the weeds of your locality. Get 
the whole plant, — root, stem, branches, and 
blossoms. Collect weed seeds also. 

2. Write an account of the most troublesome 
weeds with which you are familiar. Are they 
annuals, biennials, or perennials ? How do their 
seeds travel? In what other ways are they 
reproduced ? In what crops are they especially 
troublesome? What are the best and most 
economical ways of getting rid of them? 



FUNGOUS DISEASES 



Advantages of Commerce. — The railroad and the steamship 
have bound together all parts of the world. People are fed on 
fruit, vegetables, grain, and meat produced in other states, other 
countries, other continents. This interchange of produce is in 
many ways a great advantage. It enlarges markets, it lessens 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 



199 



suffering from crop shortages and failures. If the wheat crop of 
the United States be small, the surplus of Russia furnishes us 
bread. If America has a bountiful crop, it goes to supply food for 
Europe. 

Disadvantages. — But this intercourse has its disadvantages. 
As you learned, many troublesome Old World weeds have been 
brought to us in one way and another. Other and more deadly 
crop enemies have been imported. Diseases and insects, once 
confined to localities, have spread over the world. 

Fungous Diseases. — Old farmers remember when fungous 
diseases of crops were almost or entirely unknown. Fruit ripened, 
vegetables grew, grain matured, without any serious injury. 
Now there is hardly a farmer who does not lose by these diseases 
cyQvy year. Usually, he loses heavily unless he uses preventive 
measures. 

Fungi. — A fungous disease is one caused by fungi, — plants 
which live on other plants or animals and take nourishment from 
them. One such plant is called a fun'gus. Some 
fungi, such as mushrooms, are large ; others, such 
as blight, are very small, so small that they are 
invisible to the naked eye. Some, such as the 
yeasts, are useful; others, such as the smuts, are 
harmful. Some cause deadly diseases; without 
others, man would die, because it would be im- 
possible to raise any food crop. 

Three well-known classes of fungi are mold, 
yeast, and bacteria. 

Fungi are the lowest forms of li\'ing things. 
They lack the chlorophyl by means of which, as 
you have learned, higher plants feed on the elements of the air. 
Instead of being green, they arc usually white, pink, yellow, blue, 




Moi.i) 
Greatly magnified 



200 AGRICULTURE 

or brown. Instead of seeds, they produce spores, minute bodies 
which bud or break off from the fungi. These reproduce with 
wonderful rapidity. One plant may produce several millions 
within twenty-four hours. Spores are so small and light that 
they are borne far and wide in the air. 

Some fungi perish under unfavorable conditions. Others es- 
tabhsh a colony on a host, as the plant or animal on which they 
fasten themselves is called. A very unwilling host it is, we may 
be sure, which is deprived by its guest of tissue or juices or even of 
life. The fungi penetrate the cell walls of their host, devour the 
protoplasm which, as you have learned, is the living principle; 
they destroy cell after cell, and weaken or kill the host plant. 

Bacteria are so small that they have to be magnified before we 
can perceive them at all. Under the microscope, they are seen 
to have one of three forms ; they are ' shaped like balls, pencils, 
or corkscrews.' 

You have learned that some bacteria help the farmer by chang- 
ing nitrogen into forms which plants can use, and others harm him 
by consuming soil nitrogen. There are other fungi which harm 
him by feeding on his crop plants, producing such diseases as 
rot, rust, smut, mildew, blight, scab, and wilt. 

It is important for the farmer to learn something about fungi. 
He is then better able to get the aid of the helpful ones and to 
check the ravages of the harmful ones. 

Fire Blight. — The bacteria which cause fire blight of fruit trees 
are carried by insects at blossoming time. Thus they spread from 
tree •to tree, from neighborhood to neighborhood. The bacteria 
use the food prepared in the leaves for the tree, and kill leaves, 
twigs, branches, often the tree itself. The disease is called fire 
blight because the leaves affected look as if they had been scorched 
by fire. 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 



201 



When these withered, blackened leaves are seen, the twig bear- 
ing them should be cut off some distance below the darkened place 
which shows how far the disease extends. These twigs should be 
burned in order to destroy the bacteria. The knife should be dis- 
infected after each cutting, so as to keep from infecting healthy 
wood. 




Courtesy of Connecticut Agricultural Station 

MusKMELON Vine with Blight 



Rust. — There are many forms of rust which affect different 
plants. The rust of the apple is an interesting example of a fungus 
which has two hosts, one affording it a summer home, the other 
giving it winter quarters. 

The winter home of the fungus is the red cedar, on which it 
forms what is called the cedar apple. In wet spring weather 
these cedar ap})les are covered with jelly-like tissue, which is a 



202 



AGRICULTURE 



mass of spores that are cast off in enormous numbers. They float 
through the air to find a home on the apple fohage. They pene- 
trate the tissue, forming orange-colored spots which injure and 

often destroy the foliage. On 
the under side of the spots are 
small cup-shaped bodies which 
bear the spores. Later, these 
spores float back and infest 
the leaves of the cedar. The 
fungus cannot live if deprived 
of cither of its host plants. It 
is most easily kept in check in 
an apple orchard that has no 
cedar trees near it. 

Rot. —Most kinds of fruit 
rot arc very contagious, and 
sound fruit is rapidly infected 
by diseased. One day there 
may be only two or three de- 
caying peaches on a tree; a 
week later it may be impos- 
sible to find a sound one. 

As an experiment, a knife 
blade was inserted first in a 
speck of bitter rot on an apple and then in a sound apple, which 
was put in a basket of healthy fruit. The apples were attacked 
by bitter rot, and in a few days every one in the basket was 
destroyed. 

Smut. — There are different kinds of smut that infest cereals. 
The smut grows with and on the plants. Its spores, thousands 
and thousands together, resemble a black powder in the heads of 




Apples infected with bitter rot from "mummy 
of last year's fruit 




Grapes from a Vineyard affected with Black Rot 
The upper bunches wore on a vine that was sprayed with Bordeaux mixtur.e; the lower 
ones were on an unsprayed vine. 




Cherry with Bkown kor, showing the Progress oe the Disease 



204 



AGRICULTURE 



grain, such as wheat or oats. When the grain is threshed, these 
spores adhere to the grains and are planted with them. They 
develop and attack the young plants. The farmer does not wish 
to raise a crop of smut to feed upon his grain and lessen its yield. 
Therefore he should kill the smut spores on infected grain by the 
use of for'ma lin, as described on page 307 in the appendix. 

Wilt. — Wilt is a disease which attacks cotton, flax, tobacco, 
cowpeas, and other crops. It is caused by bacteria in the soil, 





i^i^Aj^ .^JSk. 


hf^Hl :^,i^ 


MM 


^ 


iMiL' 








, 






"^ *■? 


^ 



Court. 'sy ,)l Xurth (_':ir..Uii:l K.\ |irii iii. lit Slatlou 

Tobacco, showing Different Stages of Wilt 

which enter the plant, probably through the root hairs, and spread 
up into the stem. There they grow, and choke the passages so that 
the flow of sap from root to foliage is lessened or stopped. As 
their supply of water is evaporated, the leaves wilt and wither. 
Later, the stem blackens and rots. Sometimes only a few plants 
in a field are affected, sometimes all are attacked. Care must 
be taken not to spread the disease by carrying infested plants off 
the field where they grew. They should, if possible, be collected 
and burned there. 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 205 

As the fungi ])crsists in the soil often as long as eight years, the 
same crop should not be planted on that field for several years. 
Instead, there should be planted crops, such as corn, that are not 
subject to wilt diseases. Wilt-resistant varieties of cowpeas, 
cotton, flax, and other plants have been bred by selection, but rota- 
tion of crops should never be neglected, even when these varieties 
are used. 

Preventives for Fungous Diseases. — The damage of fungous 
diseases in liclds, orchards, and gardens amounts every year to 
millions of dollars. Is there no way to prevent this loss? Yes, 
there are remedies for most of these diseases, remedies both cheap 
and effective. The farmer should know and use them. He should 
bear in mind the fact that most fungous diseases are contagious, 
and that they spread by means of spores which increase very rapidly. 
He should know and guard against the various host-plants of a 
fungus, and should know at what season it attacks its hosts. 

How to destroy Fungi. — A farmer ought to destroy the fungi in 
and on the soil as far as possible. He can do this in two ways. 

First : He should burn diseased plants. Diseased vegetable 
matter, such as twigs affected with bhght, tobacco and cotton which 
die from wilt, apples shriveled with bitter rot, should be collected 
and burned. Usually this should be done on the held where they 
are gathered, so as not to spread disease. 

Second : The fungi in the soil should be destroyed by starving 
them. Host plants should not be grown for several years on a 
field where they have been attacked by soil fungi, — tobacco with 
wilt, sweet potatoes with rot. 

The farmer should protect his crops against common diseases 
by planting and by breeding resistant varieties. There are rust- 
proof varieties of oats, and wilt-proof varieties of many plants sub- 
ject to this disease. Our native gooseberries resist mildew better 





2o6 AGRICULTURE 

than the Enghsh ones. Oriental pears are not so subject to bhght 
as European varieties. 

Fruit and grain should be stored dry and in good condition. 
Fungi require food in a moist state, and are apt to attack fruit and 

grain when they are 
put away clamp. 

Spores should be 
removed from seeds 
to which they ad- 
here. Grain affected 
Healthy Potato Potato with Scab .^, , , 

with smut, and po- 
tatoes with scab, should be treated wnth formalin just before 
planting. The preparation is inexpensive and easily appHed. 

Usually, fungi feed in and on the tissue, and are protected by 
the thickened outer skin of the host plant. The fungi already 
established in a plant cannot be killed except by treatment which 
would destroy the host also. Therefore, treatment for fungous 
diseases must be largely preventive, destroying the spores before 
they enter the plant cells. 

Fungicides. — Fungi, unlike higher plants, are made up of ab- 
sorptive tissue. This tissue will absorb flowers of sulphur or salts 
of copper, either of which is destructive to it. Sulphur is usually 
applied as a dust-spray to the plants to be protected. Copper 
sulphate, or bluestone, is the cheapest and most effective form of 
the salts of copper. The copper sulphate, dissolved and diluted in 
water, is used on bark, limbs, and unopened buds. But it should 
not be used on foliage which its acid will burn and injure. 
. Without affecting its value as a fiin'gi gide, or fungus-destroyer, 
the copper sulphate may have its acid neutralized by an alkah, 
such as lime. Two thirds of a pound of unslaked lime will 
neutralize the acid in one pound of copper sulphate. A mixture 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 



207 



of lime and copper sulphate in water, called Bor deaux'(d6) mix- 
ture, is generally used for fungous diseases affecting foliage and 
fruit. It should be applied thoroughly as a fine mist. The for- 




Cl)Urtl■^J• ol N, u \...k .\-ii.nltnr;U Stntimi 

Sprayed and Unsprayed Potato Vines in a Field affected with Bligiu' 

mula for Bordeaux mixture and directions for its preparation arc 
given in the appendix on page 307. 



EXERCISE 

1. Keep a piece of bread several days in a damp, warm place. Ex- 
amine under a microscope the mold which forms on it. 

2. Cut a sound apple with a clean knife and seal it in a clean, dry 
jar. Cut another sound apple with a knife that has been inserted in 
a rotten one; then seal the sound and rotten apples in a jar together. 
What are the results? 



2o8 AGRICULTURE 

3. Take two potatoes affected with scab. Wash one in the for- 
malin preparation described in the appendix on page 307. Plant 
both. What is the difference in the appearance of the crop from 
each? 

4. Examine plants affected with fungous diseases. What are the 
most troublesome fungous diseases of your locality? What crops do 
they attack, and what remedies are used ? 

INSECT ENEMIES 

Injuries from Insects. — Of all the creatures of the animal world, 
which inflict most injury on man? You think first of the beasts 
of the field, — fierce lions and man-eating tigers. But man has 
worse foes than these. You name the serpents, — venomous 
rattlesnakes and deadly cobras. Yet it is not they that inflict 
most injury on the human race. 

More harm and ruin and death have been caused by insects than 
by all other creatures of the animal world. Indeed, we are only 
beginning to realize the extent of their injuries, — as, for in- 
stance, that they convey germs of diseases, such as malaria and 
yellow fever. 

But though their work as messengers of disease is just being made 
known, their work as messengers of want and famine is an old 
story. Since Pharaoh ruled in Egypt, thousands of years ago, 
history has been recording plagues of insects. They come on foot 
in hosts such as no human army ever gathered; they come on 
wings so that the face of the earth is darkened. They find fair 
fields and bountiful crops and leave behind — not one green twig 
nor blade of grass. 

By skill and labor man has learned to some extent to control 
them and to prevent their ravages. Yet every year in the United 
States insects destroy at least one tenth of the agricultural crops. 



CROP EiNEMIES AND FRIENDS 



209 




Canker Worms on Apple 
Leaves 



They cause the farmers of the coun- 
try an annual loss of not less than 
five hundred million dollars. 

At least two thirds of this loss 
might be prevented by proper 
methods and remedies. Is it not 
the part of wisdom for every farm- 
er to know and practice these ? 
In order to use them, he must know 
the insects most apt to injure his 

crops, their different forms in different stages, their habits 
of feeding, and when and how they can- be most easily and 
economically destroyed. 

An Insect. — An insect is a small animal which breathes 
air through its body, has six legs, and a body divided into 
three parts — head, tho'rax, and ab d5'men. On the head 
are the mouth, the an ten'nas or feelers, and the eyes. The 
thorax is in three parts, on each of which is a pair of legs. 
Some insects are wingless, but most adult insects have one 
or two pairs of wings on the thorax. On the abdomen are 
tubes, called spir'a cles, through which the insect breathes. 

Ants, flies, bugs, beetles, grasshoppers, moths, and but- 
terflies are insects. Spiders, which are often called insects, 
have eight legs, and belong to a different class of animals 
of the same group. 

Insects usually pass through four stages, — egg, lar'va, 
pu'pa, i ma'go. 

Larva. — The insect comes from the tiny egg as a larva, a 
worm-like creature very unlike the parent. The larva" are 
greedy feeders. They eat, literally and truly, all that their 
skin will hold. When the skin cannot stretch anv more 



\ 






2IO AGRICULTURE 

they molt, or cast, that skin and grow a new one. They repeat 
this process several times until they are full-grown. 

Pupa. — The insect next enters the pupa state. The larva 
ceases to eat ; it does not move. You would think it dead. But 
it is only asleep, and in its sleep a wonderful change takes place. 
The creeping, crawling worm changes to an imago, a winged 
creature. 

Imago. — It waves its wings to and fro, and flutters from flower 
to flower. Who would ever guess that it was once a dull worm, 
that fed on the leaves of plants ? Instead of feeding greedily on 




JNB 

A Full-grown Grasshopper 



leaves, it sips nectar from flowers. It lays its eggs in a protected 
place where its young can find suitable food. Soon after it lays 
its eggs, it dies. This is the hfe history of a perfect winged insect, 
such as the butterfly. Moths resemble butterflies in appearance, 
but fly abroad chiefly at night, or in the dusk, instead of by day, 
as do butterflies. 

Nymphs. — Every insect does not pass through all these stages. 
Some, such as bugs and locusts, or grasshoppers, have only three 
stages, — ■ egg, nymph, and a dult'. The nymphs resemble the 
adults, and attain their growth by molting, without entering the 
pupa state. 

Larvae. — It is as larvae that insects are usually most injurious 
to crops, but it is often easier to kill them in other stages. If we 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 



211 



know that a destructive worm will issue from the harmless-looking 
pupa, we will crush it.- If we realize that the moth flitting about our 
yard will lay hundreds and thousands of eggs that bring forth in- 
jurious caterpillars, we will give her swift and painless death. 

Moths. — The worms and caterpillars most destructive to crops 
are the larva?, of moths. Among these are the canker worm, 
the army worm, the tent caterpillar, the cabbage, tobacco, and 
currant worms, the cotton 
boll worm, the cutworm, 
and the larvae of the cod- 
ling moth and gypsy moth. 

Codling Moth. —The cod- 
ling moth is one of our im- 
ported pests. It lays its 
eggs on young apples just 
after the blossoms fall. An 
egg hatches into a larva 
which burrows into the fruit 
and feeds on it. This causes 
the apple to fall before it is 
ripe. The full-grown larva 
leaves the apple and crawls 
up the tree trunk, enters the 
pupa state, and issues as a 
moth. 

The easiest way to deal with this pest is to trap the moths by 
bands of cloth wrapped around the tree trunk. The moths collect 
under these and can be destroyed. The tree should be sprayed 
or dusted with poison as soon as the Ijlossoms fall. It is useless 
to spray against the larvae after the blossom-end turns downward, 
as they arc then protected by the position of the fruit. 




An apple injured by the larva of the codling 
moth, which is shown on the apple; above, is 
shown the moth. 



212 



AGRICULTURE 




A ToKACco Cut- 
worm 



If unchecked, they often destroy from one fourth to three fourths 
of the apple crop. It costs milHons of dollars every year to spray 
fruit trees in order to protect them against this pest. There is a 
fiy, described later, which helps the farmer by de- 
stroying the larvae of the codling moth. 

Cutworms. — Cutworms are the enemies of almost 
all garden plants and of many field crops. The 
name is applied to the larvae of different moths, 
which are so similar in appearance and habits 
that they may be described together. 
The adult moths have dark fore wings and lighter hind wings. 
They lay their eggs about midsummer. The larvae soon hatch and 
begin to feed, but on the abundant summer foliage their ravage is 
hardly noticed. In the fall they hollow out cells in the earth, where 
they sleep through the winter. In the spring they come out and 
feed greedily on the tender young plants. They cut these off at 
the surface and eat the stem and leaves. Like the parent moths, 
they usually feed only at night ; but when food is scarce they feed 
in the day. When full-grown, cutworms are dull brown, gray, 
or greenish in color. They 
enter the earth and remain 
there in the pupa state till 
summer, and then come out 
as moths. 

The best way to destroy cut- 
worms is by thorough cultiva-. 
tion and by poison. Weeds 
and grass in fields about to be 

cultivated may be sprayed with Paris green, or the poison can 
be applied to bunches of clover or grass scattered where cutworms 
are troublesome. 




(*i,iL*,*^ 



The Moth of the Tokacco Cutworm 




THIS TWIU, FROM WHICH THE PETALS HAVE JUST FALLEN. IS REAUY 
FOR SPRAYING AGAINST THE CODLING MOTH. 




Ciiiirti-sy .it N.w Viiik Asm-uUiiral St:ilimi 



IN THIS TWIG THE BLOSSOM ENDS ARE CLOSING. AND IT IS ALMOST TOO 
LATE TO SPRAY AGAINST THE CODLING MOTH. 



214 



AGRICULTURE 



Beetles. — Beetles have four wings. The fore wings, called 
sheath wings, are hard and often bright-colored; the thin hind 
ones are kept folded under the sheath wings'. Beetles are often 
injurious in the imago as well as in the larva form. 

Colorado Potato Beetle. — This is the case with the Colorado 
potato beetle. It was an invasion of this insect that brought about 

the use of Paris green as an in- 
secticide, which has saved mil- 
lions of dollars' worth of crops. 
The potato beetle is a native of 
the Rocky ^Mountains. There, it 
feeds on weeds of the nightshade 
family, to which the potato be- 
longs. Within thirty years, it 
has extended its home to most 
parts of the United States. 

The black-and-yellow beetle 
winters in the ground. It comes 
out in the spring and feeds rav- 
enously on the potato, horse 
nettle, and eggplant. The female 
deposits its little yellow eggs — 
six hundred to a thousand in number — in patches on the under 
side of the leaves. These eggs hatch in a few clays into slug-like 
larvae. The beetles are hungry, but the larvae are ravenous. 
They feed greedily for four or five weeks, then enter the ground 
and come forth in a few days as beetles. There are three or 
four broods every season. 

To stop the ravages of beetles, hand picking is used to some ex- 
tent, but poison is the best remedy. The farmer is aided in the 
work by some birds, especially crows, by ladybird beetles, and by 




Colorado Potato Beetle 

Beetle, larva, and eggs are shown on this 
spray of a potato plant. 



CROP ExNEMIES AND FRIENDS 



215 



several kinds of bugs and ground beetles which feed on the potato 
beetles and their larva*. 

Mexican Cotton Boll Weevil. — The Mexican cotton boll weevil 
is so destructive that it has caused the cultivation of cotton to be 
abandoned in large areas in Mexico. About fifteen years ago the 
weevil was brought into Texas, and in the region invaded it has 
caused a loss of from twenty-five to ninety per cent of the cotton 





Mexican Cotton Boll Weevil, Beetle, Larva, and Pupa 
Five times natural size 

crop. It is now found in one third of the cotton section, and is 
extending its range year by year. Our American farmers are not 
disposed to surrender their cotton fields to the boll weevil, as did 
the Mexicans. Labor and science have found wa}s of lessening 
its injuries, and probably a method will be discovered, sooner or 
later, of controlling it. 

The insect which docs so much mischief is a small grayish beetle 
about one fourtli of an inch in length. With its snout it makes 
a hole in the cotton square or boll, and there deposits an egg. This 
becomes a grub, which lives in and feeds upon the square or boll. 



2l6 



AGRICULTURE 



It causes a s.quare to drop; usually, a boll remains on the 
plant, but it becomes stunted and dwarfed and the fiber is 
ruined. 

The larva, when full-grown, is about three eighths of an inch in 
length. It then enters the pupa state and becomes a beetle. This 
round of life takes about four weeks. As the bolls dry in the fall, 

the beetles leave them and seek 
shelter under rubbish, trash, 
or weeds, where they spend 
the winter. 

Since the weevil life is spent 
and its damage done chiefly 
in the square or boll, poison 
and picking cannot be used 
to any extent. Colonies of 
ants are being introduced into 
Texas, which feed on the wee- 
vil and may help keep the pest 
in check. Attempts which may 
be successful are being made 
to breed a weevil-resisting 
variety of cotton. 
The best way yet devised to control the weevil is by cultural 
methods. Trash in and around fields which aftords winter 
quarters for the beetles should be burned. They are most de- 
structive late in the season, and do not seriously injure an early- 
maturing crop. This may be secured by the use of early varieties 
and northern-grown seed and of fertilizers, and by thorough and 
frequent cultivation of the crop. 

Chinch Bug. — The chinch bug injures small grain and corn, 
and has done more damacre than anv other insect in the crrain-grow- 




Cotton bloom hollowed out by boll weevil 
larva 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 2 1/ 

ing sections of the United Stales. The loss caused by it amounts 
to hundreds of miUions of dollars. 

It is a harmless-looking little bug, about one fifth of an inch 
long, with a black body and white wings. It winters under clumps 
of grass and rubbisli or in cornstalks. In spring it comes forth 
and the female lays about one hundred and fifty eggs, which hatch 
in two or three weeks into reddish little bugs. These feed on the 
grain plants, and are full-grown just about harvest time. When 
wheat is cut, they go to oats, and after oat harvest they go to the 
cornfields. 

The period of their migration is the only time that man can attack 
them with any degree of success. Though they have wings, they 
travel on foot. If a ditch or deep furrow with steep sides of pulver- 
ized earth be put around the fields, they 
fall in, and can be crushed or killed with 
kerosene spray. A strij) of coal tar an 
inch or two wide will also catch and de- 
stroy them. 

San Jose Scale. — One of the most de- 
structive insects in orchards is the San Jose 
(ho sa') scale. It is so small that it is in- 
visible to the naked eye, the mature insect 
, . , , . ' , . . , San Jose Scale 

bemg only one thirty-second of an inch 

, , ^ _. T ' 1 1 1 1 1-11 Apple twig with scales on it, 

m length. Yet, if unchecked, they kill slightly reduced 

shade and fruit trees, often destroying 

whole orchards. They were introduced into California about 1870, 
and thence have spread to nearly every state in the Union. They 
are so deadly and so easily spread, that the greatest precaution 
should be taken against them. The laws of many states forbid 
the selling of infested trees and require treatment of infested 
orchards. 




2l8 



AGRICULTURE 



The scale may be killed by kerosene washes and sprays, or 
by. a preparation of lime, salt, and sulphur. Badly- infested 

trees, especially peaches, plums, and 
other stone fruits, are not ' worth 
treating. They should be cut and 
burned. 

Insect Ravages. — These are only a 
few of our many insect pests. We are 
reniindcd of the boast of the locusts 
in the Eastern tale: " We are the army 
of the great God. We produce ninety- 
nine eggs. If the hundred were com- 
plete, we should consume the whole 
earth and all that is in it." 

Yet, vast and destructive as are the 
hosts, the farmer can protect his crops 
to a great extent against their ravages. 
He can do this in two ways, by cul- 
tural methods and by poisons. To use 
cultural means successfully, he must 
know the life history of the insects he 
is combating ; to use poison success- 
fully, he must loiow their structure 
and habits. 
Cultural Methods. — The best means of controlling and check- 
ing most insects is by cultural methods. 

The leaves, vines, and stubble in which and under which many 
insects winter should be destroyed. It is often wise to burn these 
on fields infested with chinch bugs and some other insects. The 
weeds on which injurious insects feed and breed should be 
destroyed as far as possible. 




Peach tree dying with San Jose 
scale 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 219 

By deep fall plowing many insects are destroyed. Cutworms 
arc brought to the surface and are frozen in winter ; grasshopper 
eggs are buried so deep that the insects cannot come out. 

Fertilizers give plants vigor to resist injury from insects, espe- 
cially from root-feeding ones. 

Insects collect on a trap crop which is planted early or at intervals 
in another crop. They can be destroyed before they attack the 
main crop. 

The time of planting and cultivation can sometimes be planned 
so as to check insect enemies. Late-sowed wheat suffers least 
from the Hessian fly, early- maturing cotton largely escapes the 
boll weevil, late-planted corn is least injured by cutworms. 

Other things being equal, two crops having the same troublesome 
insect enemies should not be placed side by side. Corn beside 
grass is more liable to cutworms ; beside wheat, to chinch bugs. 

Rotation of crops is an important means of protection against 
insect injury. In the case of many insects, it is the only practicable 
remedy. If land be planted in the same. crop year after year, tlie 
soil becomes infested with insects injurious to it. 

Insecticides. — The kind of poison used depends on the struc- 
ture and feeding habits of the insect. As to feeding habits, insects 
may be divided into two classes, — chewing and sucking ones; the 
first have mouths arranged for chewing food, the second have 
mouth-tubes which they insert into a plant or animal and through 
which they suck its juices. 

Chewing Insects. — Chewing insects usually live on the foliage 
of plants. They can be killed by applying to their food plants a 
poison, generally some form of arsenic. One of the cheapest and 
best forms is Paris green. The acid in it, like that in copper sul- 
I)hate, needs to be counteracted by an alkali, and so with it also 
lime is used. Properly prepared and applied, Paris green is 



220 AGRICULTURE 

'harmless to most plants. Directions for its preparation and use 
are given in the appendix on page 307. 

Of course external poisons are useless against chewing insects 
which live in fruits, such as the cotton boll weevil and cur cu'li o. 
Cultural and other methods must be used against these. 

Sucking Insects, — Poison apphed to the leaf surface is harmless 
to sucking insects also. We attack them in another way. In- 
sects, as you remember, breathe through spiracles, openings in 
their abdomens. If these spiracles are closed, they perish for 
lack of air. Applications, such as pry'eth rum powder or tobacco 



"m\ 







IN 1 \\( 



On the left, apples from a branch sprayed for codling moth ; on the right, apples from an 
unsprayed branch. This shows comparative quantity and quality of crops from the two 
branches. 

dust, choke the breathing tubes. Sometimes sucking insects are 
killed by an application, such as lime, which destroys their body 
tissues. 

Spraying. — Here is good advice about spraying: " Know the 
enemy to be destroyed; know the remedies that are most effective, 
and apply them at the proper season. Be prompt, thorough, and 
persistent." 

EXERCISE 

I. Compare a grasshopper, a moth or butterfly, a bug, a beetle, 
and a fly. In what ways are they like and in what unlike ? 




CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 221 

2. Collect some common insects. Watch their changes, and write 
an account of their life history from your own observation. To catch 
and keep insects, 3'ou need a net^and 
a breeding jar. The net may be 
made by fastening a handle to a small 
hoop, and gathering to the hoop a 

cheese-cloth bag two or three feet V^f 

long. The jar should have moist 
sand in the bottom and a cover of 

cheese cloth. Keep the insects in it supplied with fresh food, the 
foliage of the plants on which they are accustomed to feed. 

3. Take two twigs infested with plant lice and two potato vines with 
beetles on them. Spray one of each with Paris green and dust one of 
each with lime. What is the effect in each case? 

INSECT FRIENDS 

Helpful and Harmful Insects. — After man has done his utmost 
by cultural methods and poisons, it Avould be difficult if not im- 
possible for him to keep the vast insect hosts in check. Fortu- 
nately, he has helpers in the animal world that do the greater i)art 
of the work. Among these are birds and insects. 

It is not possible to make a hard-and-fast line betAvcen helpful 
and harmful insects. Some do good in one way and harm in 
another; some are friends under certain circumstances and foes 
under others. 

]\Iany insects are directly valuable on account of their products. 
The bee yields a palatable food, the silkworm a much-prized cloth- 
ing material. 

Insects are necessary to the well-being of many plants, to carry 
pollen and fertilize flowers. Some insects, even those that are 
annoying, are useful in destroying dead organic matter, such as 
decaying flesh and vegetables. Thus they purify the air and the 
soil, and change waste matter into plant food. 



222 



AGRICULTURE 



There are insects which we regard as our friends because they 
act as a check on injurious ones. 

Ladybirds. — There are many beetles which hve on other in- 
sects. The most useful of these are the ladybirds. There are only 
two or three injurious members in this large family. The lady- 
birds are small beetles with bright-colored wings usually spotted 
red and black. They live among the leaves of various kinds of 
plants. As larvae and beetles, they feed on soft-bodied, injurious 
insects, such as plant lice and flies. 







Ladybird Beetles 

These ladybird beetles — the nine-spotted, the fifteen-spotted, the two-spotted, the twice- 
stabbed, and the pentilia — devour injurious, insects. 



Tiger and Ground Beetles. — There are hundreds of kinds of 
tiger and ground beetles, which devour many cutworms and cat- 
erpillars. The tiger beetles are rather bright-colored and active. 
They chase other insects, or lie in wait for them. Some of the 
ground beetles are shining black, others are marked with brilliant 
colors, — gold, green, and purple. They usually prowl after 
nightfall. Some of them climb trees in search of their prey. 

Dragon Flies and Damsel Flies. — Dragon flies and damsel flies 
are graceful insects, with gauzy wings. They live near ponds and 
streams, and usually lay their eggs on the water. They feed on 
smaller insects, such as gnats, flies, and mosquitoes. 

Ichneumon and Tachina Flies. — The ich neii'mon and tach'i na 
flies destroy insects, not by feeding directly on them, but by utiliz- 
ing them as food for their mag'gots, as the larvae of flies are called. 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 



223 



These flies deposit their eggs on the larvas of other insects. The 
maggots which hatch from the eggs enter the larvai and destroy 
them by feeding on their juices. 




Dragon Fly, Different Sta.;Ej 

One kind of ichneumon fly locates the larvae which are working 
as borers in trees. It makes a hole above them and deposits its 
eggs on them. Other kinds destroy tent- 
worm caterpillars, cabbage worms, and 
other injurious larvcT. From Spain there 
has been imported a fly which is the 
deadly enemy of the codling moth. It 
is a wasp-like fly, about five eighths of 
an inch in length, with two pairs of blue- 
black wings. It has a sharp, dagger-like sting with which it 
impales the larvae. 

EXERCISE 

1. Observe and describe helpful insects. 

2. Catch some ladybird beetles and put them in a jar containing a 
twig infested with plant lice. What do the beetles do ? 




Tachina Fly 
Larva at left and pupa at right 



224 



AGRICULTURE 



BIRDS 

Birds' Food. — Some birds, such as barn swallows, live wholly 
on insects, most of which are harmful; some, such as bluebirds, 
eat both insects and seeds, chiefly weed seeds; others, such a 

sparrows, live chiefly 
1^1 or entirely on wcr 

seeds, fruit, and gr<' 
but feed their you 
on insects until they 
are able to digest hard 
food. 

In two ways birds 
are especially fitted 
for the work of ^' • 
stroying weed see^ 
and insects. They 
have keen eyes which 
can discover tiny seeds 
and insects; they have 
hearty appetites; it is 
no unusual thing for 
a bird to eat its own 
weight of food in a day. 
Birds' services as weec^ seed and insect destroyers entitle them 
to be regarded by the famer as among his most helpful friends. 
Too often they are not trea ed as such. Our beautiful and useful 
song birds are killed by hunt^reds and thousands for food or spor' 
What cruel and wicked slaughter ! Let us do our part to protec 
and care for these bird friends. 




Goldfinch 
A seed-eatinsf bird 




Insect- and Wkkd-Skkd-Desteoying Birds 
Bluebird, Tree Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Kobin 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 



225 



Bird Neighbors. — Song birds may be encouraged to nest about 
the yard, garden, and orchard. Their beauty and their sweet 
songs make them charming 
neighbors. It is a good plan 
to plant mulberries and berry- 
and seed-bearing shrubs near 
the house. Water should be 
put where birds can get it in 
dry weather, and food should 
be provided when the ground 
is covered with snow. 

Useful Birds. — Among the 
birds most helpful to the 
farmer are the swallows, 
cuckoos, woodpeckers, spar- 
rows, wrens, Baltimore oriole, 
bluebird, partridge, and mock- 
ing bird. 

Swallows. — There are seven 
common species of swallows 
found in the United States, and 
most of them hke to build 
their nests near houses. The 
barn swallow has given up its 

original habit of building in rock caves or under cliffs, and makes 
its nest under the eaves of barns or often inside barns and out- 
houses. Like all other insect-eating birds, swallows are swift 
of wing. They are rarely seen still, darting here and there to 
catch the fhes, ants, beetles, and other insects which arc their food. 

Cuckoos. — Cuckoos eat grasshoppers and caterpillars, as well 
as flies and bugs. Unlike most other birds, cuckoos eat hairy cater- 




A Birds" Christmas Tree 

Chicadees are attracted to the bird house by 
food put on the shelf for them. 



226 



AGRICULTURE 



pillars, many of which are injurious to trees. Indeed, caterpillars 
of various kinds seeiti to be the chief article of their diet. 

Woodpeckers. — Woodpeck- 
ers are the great friends of 
forest and fruit trees. They 
are sometimes accused of rob- 
bing the trees of sap; of only 
one is this true, the jtIIow- 
bcllied woodpecker, or sap 
sucker. All other woodpeck- 
ers seek and eat the wocd- 
boring larvae. Some ants and 
other insects are very harmful 
to timber trees, often burrow- 
ing in them till the whole 
trunk is honeycombed. The 
woodpeckers, with their sharp 
bills, bore holes in the wood 
and draw the insects out on 
their tongues. Thus they de- 
stroy many insects which other 
birds cannot reach. They eat, 
also, grasshoppers, beetles, and 
other insects, and some small 
fruits and berries. 
Sparrows. — There are many species of our native sparrows, and 
nearly all of them are farmers' friends. They are chiefly seed 
eaters, destroying great quantities of weed seeds. During the 
summer and in the breeding season, they eat insects, such as 
injurious beetles and small grasshoppers. All through the winter, 
they are busy reducing next year's crop of harmful weeds. ' " 




Courtesy of New Hampshire Agricultural Station 

A caterpillar nest which has been 
attacked by birds 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 



227 



Baltimore Oriole. — The Baltimore oriole is one of our hand- 
somest birds, and is a sweet singer as well as a useful insect-eater. 
Caterpillars form the largest part of its fare during its summer stay- 
in our country. It eats r- 1 
other insects, including 
harmful plant lice, which 
are so small that they 
are searched out by few 
other birds. Less than 
one fifth of its food is 
vegetable, and that is 
wild fruit and seeds. 

Wren.— The little 
house wrens are common 
in gardens and orchards. 
They live almost entirely 
on insects, such as grass- 
hoppers, beetles, cater- 
pillars, and bugs. Since 
practically all the insects 
they destroy are injuri- 
ous, they should be en- 
couraged-to take up their 
residence near houses, 
by having nesting boxes provided. These should be fastened out 
of reach of cats. 

Chickadee. — The chickadee is one of our tiny bird friends. It 
feeds on small insects, such as bark lice, and on insect eggs which 
escape the notice of most other birds. 

Bluebird. — ^The pretty and common bluebird is another useful 
friend. About three fourths of its food is insects, chiefly grass- 




Bluebird at edge of nest, with grasshopper in its 
mouth 



228 AGRICULTURE 

hoppers and caterpillars. Its vegetable food consists mainly of 
weed seeds eaten in winter. It should be protected and encour- 
aged to build near houses. 

The birds mentioned are almost if not altogether harmless, 
but this is not the case with all our bird neighbors. 

Robin and Catbird. — The catbird and the robin in its red- 
brown coat are familiar figures hopping about the yard or garden. 
Nearly one half of their food is made up of insects, chietly harmful 
beetles, caterpillars, and grasshoppers. The remainder of their 
food consists of small fruits and berries. The fruit-grower com- 
plains especially of their thefts of berries and cherries. They are 
fond of mulberries, and many orchardists protect cherry trees by 
planting near them the Russian mulberry, as the fruit of both 
ripens about the same time. 

Bobolink, or Rice Bird. — The bobolink is the northern name for 
a bird which is called rice bird in the South. It has a reputation 
in the two sections as different a-s its two names. In its summer 
sojourn in the North, it is welcomed as a song bird, which confines 
itself to a harmless diet of insects and weed seeds. It spends the 
winter in South America, going southward in great flocks in August 
and September. These flocks reach the southern states just as 
rice ripens. They pause to rest and feast on the grain before they 
take their long sea flight. It is estimated that they occasion rice- 
growers an annual loss of about two miflion dollars. Millions of 
rice birds are killed every year, but their numbers do not decrease, 
and the farmers are still seeking a remedy for the evil. 

Red-winged Blackbird. — The red-winged, or swamp, blackbird 
is another instance of a bird that is harmful in one section and 
harmless in others. Usually it feeds chiefly on insects, such as 
weevils and beetles. But in the swamps and shallows of the 
upper Mississippi Valley there are bred immense flocks which do 



CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 229 

great damage to the grain fields of the West. The young birds 
learn to fly just as grain begins to ripen, and the old birds 
lead them to the grain tields. 

Crow. — In the East the crow has as bad a reputation as a grain 
eater as the red-winged blackbird has in the West. The Indians 
call the crow the 'thief of the cornfield.' It pulls up and eats 
seed corn that has been softened and sweetened by germination. 
The crow also attacks corn when the ear is soft, tearing open the 
husks and pecking the kernels. The ear thus exposed to the 
weather is often rotted by rain. 

As a rule, however, crows destroy so many mice, grasshoppers, 
bugs, cutworms, and other crop enemies that they more than 
pay for the corn they eat. 

Harmful Birds. — There are a few birds which do so much harm 
that it outweighs the good they do. Among these are the sharp- 
shinned hawk, Cooper's hawk, goshawk, and duck hawk. The 
first two destroy poultry, and all of them feed on game and insect- 
eating birds. 

The greatest bird pest in the United States is the English sparrow. 
These sparrows were brought to this country from England about 
sixty years ago, with the expectation that they would destroy the 
insects on shade trees. Instead, they adopted a vegetable diet, 
doing much injury to grain and fruit buds and blossoms. They 
have increased enormously in numbers and have spread by millions 
all over the country. 

English sparrows are noisy and quarrelsome, the enemies of 
many insect-eating birds, and they arc pests around houses. The 
best method of destroying them is by poisoned grain exposed during 
the winter months on places out of reach of poultry. 



230 



AGRICULTURE 



EXERCISE 



1. What birds are found in your locality all the year? Name some 
you see only in winter ; only in summer. 

2. What troublesome weeds and insects of your locality do birds 
aid in destroying? 

3. Study the feeding and nesting habits of three cornmon birds. 
Write an account of them based on your own observation. 

4. Read Longfellow's poem, " The Birds of Killingworth." 



OUTLINE OF CHAPTER SIX 
DOMESTIC ANIMALS 

Stock Raising: 

Advantages: 

Secures greatest profit from feeds and fodders 

Retains in manure most of fertilizing value 
Animals need: 

Proper food 

Pure water 

Good shelter 

Pure air 
, Kind treatment 
Animal food consists of: 

Water 

Protein, or nitrogenous compounds 

Fats, or oils 

Carbohydrates, or starchy and sugary substances 

Ash, or mineral matter 
Food supplies material: 

For heat 

To repair waste of system. 

For force or energy 

For growth and fattening 
Kinds of food: 

Bulky foods, fodders, roughage, and forage : 
Stems, branches, leaves, and roots of plants 

Concentrated foods or feeds: 
Seeds 
Balanced and unbalanced rations 
Rules for feeding: 

Feed animals all they cat with relish and without waste 

Feed a balanced ration 

Give food of bulk adapted to animal's stomach 

231 



232 AGRICULTURE 

Give variety of food 
Feed regularly 
Pasturing and soiling systems 
Cattle: 
Products : 

Milk, cream, butter, cheese, veal, beef, leather, etc. 
Beef breeds: 

Shorthorn, Hereford, Galloway, Aberdeen or Polled Angus, etc. 
Dairy breeds: 
Milk breeds: 

Ayrshire, Holstein-Frisian, etc. 
Butter breeds: 

Jersey, Guernsey, etc. 
General-purpose breeds: 

Shorthorn or Durham, Hereford, Devon, Red Polled, etc. 
Butter making 
Some diseases of cattle: 
Tuberculosis 
Tick, or Texas, fever 
Horses: 
Uses : 

Riding, driving, pulling, and hauling 
Draft breeds: 

Percheron, Clydesdale, mules, etc. 
Light horses or roadsters: 
Thoroughbreds, trotting horses, saddlers, carriage or coach horses, 
ponies 
Shoeing, checkrein, docking 
Sheep : 
Products: 

Lamb, mutton, wool, leather 
Fine wool breeds: 
' Merino, etc. 
Mutton breeds: 

Southdown, Shropshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Leicester, Oxford, 
etc. 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 233 

Some diseases of sheep: 

Fly, foot rot, scab 
Goats: 
Products: 

Milk, cheese, hair, mutton, leather 
Chief breeds: 

Malta, Angora 
Hogs: 

Products: 

Lard, meat, leather, etc. 
American breeds: 

Chester White, Poland China, Duroc Jersey or Jersey Red, etc. 
English breeds: 

Yorkshire, Berkshire, Tamworth, Essex, etc. 
Chief disease: 

Cholera 
Poultry : 
Products : 

Eggs, meat 
Hens: 

Egg breeds: 
Leghorns, Houdans, Minorca, Spanish, etc. 

Meat breeds: 

Brahma, Cochin, Langshan, Game, etc. 

General-purpose breeds : 

Orpington, Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte, Rhode Island Red, etc. 
Ducks, turkeys, geese, guinea fowls, peafowls, pigeons 
Food, quarters, diseases 
Bees: 
Uses: 

Honey, pollen carrying 
Breeds : 

Native brown or black, Cyprian, Italian, Corniolan, Caucasian, etc. 
Queen, drones, workers 
Beekeeping 




At the Water Trough 



CHAPTER SIX- 

DOMESTIC ANIMALS 

STOCK RAISING 

Indian Farming. — Three hundred years ago the plains and 
forests of this vast country were dotted here and there with the 
farms, or patches, of Indians. These were usually little spots of 
mellow soil. Indian women stirred the surface with crooked 
sticks, buried seed corn in the soil thus prepared, and with the aid 
of children pulled up weeds, frightened away 'robber crows,' 
and gathered the ripe grain. 

In addition to the patch of corn there were, perhaps, others of 
tobacco and beans; these, also, the women and children cultivated 
by hand. The North American Indians kcj)t no domestic animals, 
— horses, mules, oxen, cows, hogs, sheep, or poultry. 

Domestic Animals. — Very different are the vast and productive 
farms which have succeeded the Indian patches. Our system of 
farming depends largely on the use of domestic animals; over one 
third the value of the farms of the United States is in the stock 
kept on them. Horses, mules, and oxen cultivate the crops and 
do the hauling. Cows supply milk, butter, and beef; sheep fur- 
nish lamb and mutton, as well as wool; hogs yield pork and lard; 
fowls give eggs and chickens; bees provide honey. 

The farmer who lacks these animals on his farm is apt to lack 
their products on his table. Even when markets are convenient, 

235 



236 AGRICULTURE 

it is usually less expensive and more desirable to raise them than 
to buy them. 

Animal Products. — It is often not only desirable to raise these 
products for home use but profitable to raise them for sale. There 
is a large and constant demand for milk, cream, butter, cheese, 
beef, eggs, chickens, turkeys, lard, pork, bacon, honey, lamb, 
mutton, wool, and leather. 

Why Stock Raising Pays. — As a rule, farms and farmers are 
richer when stock farming is practiced. Stock farming makes 
larger returns in dollars and cents for the amount of fertility taken 
from the soil than does any other branch of farming. 

On every farm there are feeds and fodders which it pays better 
to feed to stock than to use in any other way. Hay, fodder, and 
other bulky foods are expensive to handle and have a comparatively 
low market value. It is easier to handle and market ' corn on the 
hoof,' as cattle and hogs, than corn on the cob. Changed into more 
concentrated forms, such as wool, milk, and butter, farm products 
are still more conveniently marketed and command higher prices. 

The good farmer receives these higher prices, and yet retains the 
larger part of the value of the food consumed by domestic animals. 
Only a small part of the fertilizing elements of their food is used 
in making bone, muscle, flesh, and products. The larger part is 
returned to the land in manure. 

To make a success of stock raising, one must be interested in 
animals and in their growth and improvement, must understand 
their needs, must care for them well, and must feed them intelli- 
gently so as to make the greatest gains at the least expense. Profit 
in stock raising, as in crop raising, lies in producing the most and the 
best at least expense. 

Care of Animals. — Animals require much care and attention in 
different ways. They need an abundance of proper food and pure 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 237 

water. They need pure air, but they need also protection against 
wind and rain, cold and heat. Therefore they should have clean, 
dry, comfortable quarters. 

Stock should be kept clean, free from ticks and lice, and sick 
ones should be separated from well ones. Care should be taken to 
keep the water supply pure, as disease is often caused and spread 
by impure water. • It should always be borne in mind that 'an 
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.' Usually, animals 
that have good care, proper food, and pure water are in vigorous 
health. 

Animals should be kindly treated. 'It is true of them as of men 
that it is worry not work which kills.' Some men take many 
dollars out of their own pockets every, year by neglect or ill treat- 
ment of their stock. Neglected, poorly fed, ill-used animals are 
stunted in growth and stinted in products. Naturally they are 
unprofitable. 

Breeds. — There are some animals that do not repay even good 
attention. As it costs no more in care and feed to keep good stock 
than bad, a farmer should try to secure the best. He should 
select the breeds best adapted to his special purposes, — produc- 
tion of wool or mutton, beef or milk, eggs or chickens, etc. 

It is usually economical to pay higher prices and secure pure- 
bred animals, — that is, those in which the traits desired have by 
heredity and selection become fixed as habits. Some farmers 
prefer high-grade stock, a cross between common stock and pure- 
bred; it is usually hardier than pure-bred and less subject to 
disease. A pure-bred sire at the head of a flock or herd will add 
greatly to the value of common stock. 

Whether pure-bred or grade stock be used, inferior specimens 
should be sold or slaughtered, and food and care given to animals 
which make the best returns for them. 



238 AGRICULTURE 

The kind and quantity of food given animals is a matter of so 
much importance tliat there is a saying that 'feed makes breed.' 

We have learned something about crop feeding ; let us now con- 
sider the subject of stock feeding. 

Soil and Plant. — You have already learned that processes in 
the soil prepare elements for plant use, changing unavailable ones 
into available forms. Then the plant changes these inorganic 
elements, gases and minerals," into organic structure, corn, 
clover, cotton, — according to its nature. 

Plant and Animal. — The plant changes substances into pro'tein 
or compounds containing nitrogen, into fat or oils, and into starchy 
and sugary compounds called car bo hy'drates. In addition 
to these, the plant contains water and ash or mineral matter. The 
animal body is made up of similar substances, for all of which, 
except water, animals are dependent on food furnished directly or 
indirectly by plants. 

As the soil processes prepare elements for the plant, so the plant 
prepares them for the animal. Corn and clover, hay and grain, 
are changed by the animal into blood, flesh, and bone. 

Food Assimilation. — The process begins in the mouth. There 
the food is chewed and mixed with saliva. It passes through the 
stomach and the intestines, where it is subjected to the action of 
various juices; food thus acted on is said to be 'digested.' This 
digested food passes through tiny tubes, called lac'te als, into the 
blood vessels. As the sap carries nourishment to the plant, the 
blood carries nourishment to the animal and in a wonderful way 
not clearly understood by us makes flesh and bone. The un- 
digested part of the food passes from the system through the kidneys 
and bowels. 

Uses of Food. — Let us consider the uses of food to animals. 
■ First: Food supplies material to repair the waste of the system. 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



239 




CourtisN Ml .\l„hi-:,M A-r.rultuiill Stati..ll 

Thoroughbred and Scrub Cattle 

These two head of cattle are of the same age, and have had the same care 
and food. Which does it pay to raise ? 



240 AGRICULTURE 

Just as a fire needs fuel to keep it going, the animal needs food 
to keep it alive. Every beat of the heart, every movement of the 
body, wears out tissue, and the old particles must be replaced by 
new. This change goes on gradually but so constantly that all 
particles in the body — except, it is believed, the enamel of the 
teeth — are replaced by new particles. This new tissue is formed 
by nourishment which comes from the food. Protein is a flesh 
former or tissue builder. It forms muscles, nerve tissue, brains, 
bone, skin, hair, wool, nails, hoofs, and the solid white substance 
of the blood. The ash forms ash, giving firmness to bones and 
teeth. 

Second: Food supplies heat. In summer or winter the tem- 
perature of the body must be kept at about 98°. Body heat is kept 
up chiefly by carbohydrates. Fats serve the same purpose, one 
pound of fat being equal in feeding value to two and two fifths 
pounds of carbohydrates. More of this class of food is recjuircd to 
keep the body at the proper temperature in winter than in summer, 
in cold countries than in warm ones. In winter people eat more 
meat, hogs and horses more corn, because these are carbona'- 
ceous, or heat-supplying foods. When animals are kept in warm 
stables in winter, it requires less food to keep up body heat. 

Third: Food supplies force or energy. This also is supphed 
largely by fats and carbohydrates. Every furrow the horse plows, 
every pound it pulls, every step an animal takes in exercise or in 
search of food, requires energy. Horses at hard work require 
more food than those at light work and much more than those that 
are idle. Even on larger rations, horses are apt to lose flesh during 
the hard-working spring season. 

Fourth : Food supplies material for growth and fattening. Fat 
and carbohydrates, often called fat formers, form fat but do not 
build up tissue. Young growing animals and animals producing 



DOiMESTlC ANIMALS 24 1 

milk and eggs need flesh formers, or foods containing nitrogen. 
Fattening animals require more carbonaceous foods. The smaller 
the demand for heat and energy, the more food can go to forming 
fat. Therefore it is more economical to fatten and kill hogs before 
cold weather when much of their food would be used to furnish 
heat. It is wise to pen fattening hogs and to confine fattening cattle 
in stables or feed lots so that food may go to fat instead of to 
energy. 

Kinds of Food. — There are two kinds of food commonly used 
for stock, bulky foods called forage, roughage, or fodders, and con- 
centrated foods or feeds. 

Forage. — The bulky foods most commonly used are hay, 
cornstalks, straw, silage, roots, and tubers. As a rule, fodders 
are rich in carbohydrates and poor in protein. They differ greatly, 
however, and the difference is due not only to the kind of plant, 
but also to soil, time of cutting, and method of curing. 

Feeds. — Feeds are seeds of plants, whole or ground, and their 
by-products. Feeds supply protein, fat, and carbohydrates, and 
furnish a large amount of nourishment in small bulk. Grain — the 
seeds of cereals, such as corn, rye, oats, and barley — is largely used 
for feeds. 

Other valuable feeds are the seeds of peas, beans, and other 
legumes; mill feeds, the ground grain of cereals; bran and mid- 
dlings, the germs and the outer coverings of grain; cotton-seed 
meal, left from the manufacture of oil from cotton seed; linseed 
meal, or oil meal, left from the manufacture of oil from flax- 
seed. 

Food Value. — A food is valuable according to its digestible 
value. This depends to a great extent on the form in which it is 
fed. The fiber of cornstalks and other coarse fodders resists the 
digestive fluids. To get their full feeding value, these should be 



242 AGRICULTURE 

cut or crushed. Some seeds, such as corn, that have hard shells 
have their food value increased by grinding. 

Scientists made laboratory tests to learn the chemical value of 
foods, and feeding tests to learn their digestible value. They 
weighed and analyzed the food, products, and manure of animals 
to learn how much food was digested. Experiments long and 
carefully conducted enabled them to prepare tables showing the 
feeding values of different foods and fodders, — that is, their 
amount of digestible protein, fat, carbohydrates, and ash. A table 
containing a statement of some of these results will be found on 
page 309. 

Every farmer bears practical testimony to the truth of these tests 
by the different prices he sets on different feeds and fodders, and 
the way he feeds and buys and sells. As a rule, the richer a food 
is in nitrogen the greater its value. 

Feeding Standards. — Scientists made feeding tests also to learn 
the amount of digestible protein, fat, and carbohydrates that arc 
best for domestic animals under average conditions. They 
studied the results of different foods and different amounts on 
thousands ol animals. The results are embodied in what are called 
'feeding standards' (see page 309). These tell the proper ration, 
or one day's food, for an animal of a certain weight under ordinary 
conditions. 

A ration conforming to this standard and giving the proper 
amount of digestible protein, fat, and carbohydrates is called a 
'balanced ration.' Feeding standards are not hard-and-fast rules, 
for there are differences among individuals, but they are good 
general guides. t 

As you have learned, food has a twofold value, its feeding value 
and its manurial value. This latter subject has been discussed in 
the chapter on Soil Improvement. 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 243 

Balanced and Unbalanced Rations. — Practical tests show that 
animals generally thri\'e better when the ration is properly bal- 
anced. A balanced ration is more economical for the farmer as 
well as better for the animal ; there is always waste in an un- 
balanced one. If, for instance, an animal be fed a ration too high 
in carbohydrates and too low in protein, it will consume more 
carbohydrates than it needs in order to obtain enough ])rotcin. 

Sometimes special conditions, such as the feed on hand and mar- 
ket values, make it necessary or desirable for the farmer to feed 
an unbalanced ration. This should, however, be guarded against 
as far as possible. It is often cheaper to sell some feeds and buy 
others than to feed unbalanced rations. Many farmers feed 
carbonaceous foods, especially corn, in wasteful excess ; it would 
be better to sell a part of the corn and purchase some 
feed richer in protein, such as linseed meal. At less cost 
animals would thrive better. Hogs fed entirely on corn meal 
sometimes lose the use of their legs for want of bone-forming food. 

Food. — The amount and kind of food to be given differ accord- 
ing to the purpose of feeding. Usually, food is given to animals 
not merely to keep them alive but to supply energy for work, to 
make them grow, to fatten them for food or market, to provide 
])ro(lucts such as milk and eggs. 

Rules for Feeding. — Here are some rules which practical farm- 
ers find it profitable to follow. 

First: Animals should be fed as much as they will eat with 
relish and without waste, and digest well. This gives best re- 
turns in growth, fat, and products. 'Stinted animals are usually 
stunted ones.' Overfeeding is injurious as well as wasteful. Too 
much unripe grain, green rape, cowpeas, clover, or alfalfa may 
cause sickness or death. 

Second: Animals should be fed a balanced ration in order to 



244 AGRICULTURE 

supply all the needs of their systems. Fat and carbohydrates are 
needed to supply heat and force, fat and milk; protein to form 
flesh, to build up waste tissue and to form new. 

Third: The food must have a certain bulk adapted to the size 
of the animal's stomach and the length of the intestines. Rumi- 
nants, such as the cow and sheep, need two thirds bulky food, such 
as hay and straw; horses need half fodder and half grain; pigs and 
poultry need more than half concentrated food. 

Fourth: Animals, like people, need variety of food. Change of 
rations improves appetite and digestion. Decided change in kind 
or amount of food should be made gradually, not abru])t]y. 

Fifth: Animals should be fed at regular hours. Like human 
beings, they thrive better when their meals are given at proper 
fixed times. 

Raising Feed. — ^ As a rule, a farmer should rai^e most or all of 
his own fodders and feeds. He should choose, productive and 
nourishing ones which are suited to his soil and climate and which 
supply a balanced ration. 

Pasturing and Soiling. — Where land is cheap and farmers prac- 
tice the extensive system, trying to cultivate as many acres as 
possible, it is usual to graze stock. This is the common method in 
the South, w^here, with a little attention, fields and pastures furnish 
stock a bountiful living three hundred out of three hundred and 
sixty-five days in the year. It is also the rule on the great western 
ranges, rich in nutritious native grasses. 

Where land values are high, farmers practice the intensive sys- 
tem, trying to raise as large crops as possible on each acre. There, 
soiling is preferred, — that is, animals are kept in stables or yards 
and fed cut forage. 

One acre in soiling crops has as much feeding value as four acres 
in pasture. A fifteen-acre dairy farm in Pennsylvania by the soil- 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 245 

ing system for years supported thirty Jersey cows, two to the acre. 
Grazing animals trample and destroy more than they eat. The 
manure is unequally distributed, leaving part of the land unfer- 
tilized and causing part to produce rank growth which stock avoid. 
When such crops as alfalfa, drilled corn, oats, vetches, rye, and 
clovers are cut and fed to cattle, their full \'alue is utilized as food 
and as manure. Cows are often more comfortable in good stables 
than in pastures where flies annoy them. 

On many farms there are woodland or meadow pastures imavail- 
able for crops, which it is economical to use for pastures. These 
will often 1x' found more profitable when supplemented by soiling 
crops. 

EXERCISE 

1. Do you know any domestic animal that is fed a l)alanced ration ? 
an unbalanced one? What is the condition of each? 

2. Name three stock foods rich in protein ; three rich in carbohydrates. 

3. In your locality, which is more profitable, pasturing or soiling? 
Give reasons. 

CATTLE 

History. — Formerly all farm animals were called cattle. Now 
the term is apj)lied only to beef and dairy breeds. Our tame breeds 
arc descended from the wild cattle of Europe and Asia; most of the 
improved ones have Ix'cn developed in Great Britain. They have 
had their milk and flesh capacity develo])ed by food, care, and 
selection. 

Cattle are raised chietly for beef, veal, milk, cream, butter, and 
cheese; but they furnish us other things. Their hides are valuable 
for leather, their hair for plaster, their hoofs for glue, their bones 
for buttons and fertilizers. 

Beef and Dairy Breeds. - Cattle may be divided into two great 




LoRETTA D— A Dairy Type 

A pure-bred Jersey; the champion dairy cow at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. Her 
record for 120 days was 5802.7 lb. milk, yielding 330.03 lb. butter. 




Bi.ACKiuRD 26TH — a Beef Type 

An Aberdeen-Angus cow, weighing 1806 lb., champion of St. Louis World's 
Fair, 1904. 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 247 

classes, the beef breeds used chiefly for flesh or beef, and the dairy- 
breeds raised chiefly for the production of milk, butter, and cheese. 
The two types differ much in appearance. 

The beef breeds are large, square-built, compact, and broad- 
backed. Their food goes to fat. Among the principal beef breeds 
are Shorthorn, Hereford, Galloway, and Aberdeen or Polled Angus. 
The raising of beef cattle is one of the chief industries on the 
western plains. Vast herds thrive on natural grasses and require 
little care. 

Dairy Cattle. — The dairy breeds are small and wedge-shaped. 
They have little flesh on the back, loins, and thighs, but the hind 





Rear and Side Views of Dairy and Beef Cattle, showing Difference in Shape 

parts are deep and wide. They have large stomachs and udders 
with large many-branched milk veins. Their food goes to milk. 
In the eastern part of the United States, chiefly dairy breeds arc 
kept. 

Dairy cattle are subdivided into milk breeds, which give a large 
quantity of milk, and butter breeds, which yield milk rich in butter 
fat. 

Milk Breeds. — Among the chief milk breeds are the Ayrshire 
from Scotland and the Holstein-Frisian, a Dutch breed. 

Butter Breeds. — The best butter breeds are the Jersey and the 
Guernsey, which originated on the islands of the same name in the 
English Channel. Our common cattle are im])roved in butter- 
producing qualities by a cross with Jerseys or (}uernseys. 



248 



AGRICULTURE 



General-purpose Breeds. — There are some breeds called gen- 
eral-purpose cattle, which are valuable for both milk and beef. 
/Vmong these arc certain strains of the Shorthorn or Durham, the 
Devon, and Red Polled. The range cattle of Texas and the West 
have been graded up chiefly with the Shorthorn and Hereford. 




RowENA 2ND — Dual-purpose Cow 

A pure-bred Shorthorn, champion dual-purpose cow of the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. 
Her record for 120 days was 4053 lb. milk, yielding 201.13 lb. butter : during that 
time she gained 139 lb. in weight 



Improving ' Scrub ' Cattle. — Common or ' scrub ' cattle, as a rule, 
mature slowly and give less flesh and milk for the same amount of 
food than do improved breeds. The quickest and most economical 
way to improve a herd of common cattle is to put at the head a bull 
of the type desired. It is often and truly said, "the sire is half 
the herd." Some breeds, such as the Shorthorn, transmit their 
good qualities with especial strength and certainty. 

Dairy Products. — Dairy products are milk, cream, butter, and 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 249 

cheese; the by-products are skim milk, buttermilk, and whey. 
Milk is a fluid formed in the glands of the cow's udder. It is an 
ideal food, containing in readily digestible form water for thirst, 
ash to make bones, protein to form flesh and muscle, and fat and 
sugar to supply heat and energy. 

The globules of fat are light and rise to the surface, forming 
cream. These globules vary in size. They are large in the 






o OOao^Oo^^ o •(to^• 
A, Pure Milk, and B, Impure Milk, as seen under the Microscope 

A shows fat globules ; B shows globules and also many forms of bacteria. B stood sev- 
eral hours in a warm room in a dirty dish. 

milk of the butter breeds and small in that of the cheese 
breeds. 

Bacteria, always present in the air, grow in milk and change 
its sugar to an acid which gives it a sour taste. Where strict 
cleanliness is observed, there are fewer bacteria and milk does 
not sour so quickly. Souring, or turning, of milk is retarded also 
by keeping it cool, as bacteria thrive in warmth. Cooling milk 
does not destroy the germs but only checks their action. 

Skim milk and buttermilk, from which fat has been removed, 
and whey, left from the manufacture of cheese, are wholesome and 



250 AGRICULTURE 

nourishing foods for human beings and for hve stock, especially 
pigs, calves, and poultry. 

The profitableness of a dairy cow depends on the quality and 
quantity of her milk. The amount of butter fat in milk can be 
determined exactly by the Babcock milk tester, a simple machine 
invented by Dr. S. M. Babcock of Wisconsin, which is used by 
dairymen all over the country. 

On dairy farms the cream is taken from the milk by a machine 
called a separator which does the work better and more quickly 
than it can be done by hand. The cost of separators often pre- 
vents their being used on small farms, and there the milk is set in 
pans for the cream to rise. 

After the cream ripens or sours, it is churned, to collect the butter 
fat in compact shape. The proper temperature for cream for 
churning is from 58° to 62°. If it is too warm, ice or cold water 
should be added to bring it to the proper temperature ; if it is too 
cold, it should be warmed by placing the can containing it in a 
larger vessel containing hot water. The butter must be washed 
with cold water to harden it, and then salted with fine dairy 
salt. 

The process of making good butter ends with churning, but it 
begins with the care of the cow, milk, and -cream. The cow's 
food affects the color, flavor, and texture of the butter. Most of 
the bacteria are destroyed in butter, probably by the salt. Some 
remain, and it is the action of these which makes it become rancid 
with age. 

The production of cheese is much more complicated than that 
of butter. It is attended to chiefly in cheese factories. 

Care of the Cow. — The cow should have an abundance of pure 
water, salt always in reach, and plenty of good wholesome food. 
Like all other animals, she needs a balanced ration. An average 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 25 1 

COW should have six times as much carbohydrates as protein. This 
is usually expressed in the form of a ratio, one to six, or i : 6, called 
the 'nu'tri tivc ratio.' 

As a cow's stomach is large, she needs much bulky food, about 
twenty-seven pounds of dry matter in a ration. In winter she 
should have good hay, and in summer soiling or pasturage should 
provide green forage. Turnips and other root crops should be 
fed chopped or sliced. They should be given directly after milk- 
ing so as not to injure the flavorof the milk. 

Filth injures the quality of all dairy products. Cleanliness, 
fresh air, dryness, and sunshine kill bacteria which injure the 
health of the cow and affect her products. The stable should be 
clean, comfortable, and well ventilated. The cow's udder and the 
body near it should be washed, and milking should be done with 
clean dry hands. 

Milk should never be left standing in a stable or milkrooin, where 
the air is impure. It readily absorbs flavors and should not be 
kept near cabbage, onions, or any other highly-flavored foods. 
All vessels used about milk should be washed in cold water and 
then scalded with boiling water. They should often be sunned 
and aired. ' Cleanliness should be the watchword of the dairy.' 

The cow should be fed and milked at regular hours and always 
treated with kindness. She is a nervous animal, and tests show 
that the ()uality and fpiantity of her milk are injured by rough, 
harsh treatment. 

Diseases. Tuberculosis. — The most common -and dangerous dis- 
ease of dairy cattle is tu ber cu lo'sis. It is caused by bacteria in 
the affected part of the body J these form tubercles, swollen masses 
of tissue, which finally break down into a cheesy mass. Some 
scientists say that the disease can be communicated to human 
beinjrs from the milk and the flesh of diseased animals. Bv boiling 



252 



AGRICULTURE 



the milk or flesh, the harmful bacteria are destroyed. The ten- 
dency to tuberculosis is increased by anything that weakens the 
general health of the animal, such as overcrowding in foul, badly- 
aired stables, feeding bad food, and overproduction of milk and 
young. The disease is contagious, and animals affected with it 



3-: r^^Sr-^ '^'•~*T^^^^ 




Shokthukn Steers 

The steers in this car-load lot averaged 1544 lb. in weight; they were prize winners at a 
Texas Fat Stock Show. 



should never be kept in a stable or herd with healthy ones. Badly 
diseased cattle should be killed.. 

Tick Fever. — Tick, or Texas, fever, prevails south of Maryland 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is caused by a parasite, con- 
veyed by cattle ticks, which are parasites of the southern United 
States. A tick cannot mature except on an animal. It fixes itself 
on the skin of cattle at pasture; when full-grown, it drops off and 
lays its eggs — fifteen to twenty-five hundred — on the grass. If the 
young ticks which hatch out fail to fix themselves on animals, they 
die in a few months. 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 253 

Southern cattle are rendered im munc', or not subject to the 
disease, by being exposed when young; but the fever kills during 
the first summer most of the mature cattle carried from northern 
to southern states. It is communicated by ticks dropped from 
southern cattle carried north in the summer. Healthy herds 
sicken and die if driven across the trail where infested herds 
passed one, two, or three months before. 

Tick fever is a serious drawback to introducing improved 
breeds in the South and has caused strict laws to be passed about 
the summer marketing of southern cattle. The fever can be pre- 
vented by cleaning cattle and pastures of ticks. They can be 
removed from cattle by the use of kerosene and other oils. Pas- 
tures can be cleaned by keeping cattle off an infected field for 
several months, usually from the first of April till the first of 
September. 

Cattle are inoculated against tick fever, just as people are against 
smallpox. 

EXERCISE 

1. Are the cattle of your locality chiefly beef or dairy breeds ? Name 
three points in proof of your statement. What breeds are most profit- 
able in your section? Why? 

2. Make a balanced ration for a dairy cow, using corn, fodder, alfalfa, 
and cotton-seed meal. 

3. A farmer raises corn and timothy hay. What should he sell and 
what buy in order to furnish balanced rations for dairy cattle ? 

4. Take two milk bottles; wash and scald one and cool it with pure 
water; rinse the other out with sour milk. Put sweet milk in both and 
seal them. Open and examine at regular intervals. In which bottle 
does milk sour first ? Why ? 



254 



AGRICULTURE 



HORSES 



History. — Our horses arc descended from wild horses, such as 
are found to-day in many parts of the world. They have been 
improved by care, food, and selection for over three thousand 
years, and have been trained to artificial gaits, such as the trot and 




Baron Doune, a Pure-i?red Clydesdale 
A good type of draft horse, weighing about 2000 lb. 

pace. Their natural gaits arc the walk and the gallop. Horses 
are not natives of America. Our wild ones are descended from 
those brought over by the Spanish and French discoverers. 

Classes. — There arc many breeds of horses, but they may be 
roughly divided into two classes : draft horses, the heavy horses 
used for farm work and hauling; and light horses, or roadsters, used 
for riding and driving. 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 255 

Draft Horses. — Draft horses arc large, usually weighing from 
fifteen hundred to two thousand pounds. They have broad backs, 
short legs, and upright shoulders that give an easy support to the 
collar. The best breeds of draft horses have been develojjed in 
Belgium, France, England, and Scotland. Two well-known 




ORNAMKNT, a KENTUCIvY TUOROUGHliRElJ 

Selected by Kentucky horsemen as a type of the breed 

breeds are the Percheron from France, and the Clydesdale from 
Scotland. 

Light Horses. — Light horses, or roadsters, are much smaller than 
draft horses. They are light of bone and muscle, have long legs, 
long thin necks, and sloping shoulders. Thoroughbreds, the 
English running horses, arc descended from the Arabian steeds 
which are noted for speed, courage, endurance, and intelligence. 

The trotting horse developed in America is not recognized as a 



256 AGRICULTURE 

distinct breed, but is better known than most pure breeds. The 
saddle horses of Kentucky and Virginia are well known. Among 
the best carriage or coach horses are the Cleveland Bay, the French 
Coach, and the English Hackney. Hackneys are large, active, and 
stylish, adapted to both road and farm work. Small horses are not 
adapted to the deep plowing, hard pulling, and heavy hauling of 
the farm. 

Pure-bred sires improve common stock. It is profitable to breed 
and use good grades. 

Ponies. — Ponies are breeds of small horses. The gentle, shaggy, 
little Shetland ponies from the Shetland Islands off the west coast 
of Scotland are favorites with children. The Indian ponies and 
mustangs of the West, North, and South are descended from the 
horses brought to this country from Spain and France. They are 
active, hardy, and much prized as saddle horses. 

Mules. — Mules, a cross between the horse and the ass, are noted 
for strength, endurance, and hardiness. They are valuable for 
farm purposes and for heavy hauling. 

Food. — Grass is the natural food of the horse, but an entire 
diet of it makes a horse ' soft ' and unfit for hard work. The best 
foods are good hay, oats, and corn. A horse needs about twenty 
pounds o^ dry matter daily; half of the food should be a concen- 
trated feed, such as corn, and half a bulky food, such as hay. 

A horse needs about eight gallons of water a day and should be 
watered three times a day, before meals. At w^ork in warm 
weather, horses, like people, need water oftener, but are apt to be 
injured by drinking much cold water when they are very warm. 

Care. — The horse should be given clean, comfortable quar- 
ters, gentle, firm management, and good feed. Good treatment 
wuU do much to give horses a good disposition. They are nervous 
animals, and rough, harsh treatment makes them vicious and 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 257 

unreliable. Good grooming keeps the pores of the skin open and 
the hair glossy and in good condition. 

Probably no animal suffers so much from the cruelty, neglect, and 
ignorance of its owner as does the horse. It is often driven, 
worked, and fed with little judgment, its health injured, and its 
period of usefulness is lessened or cut short by neglect and mis- 
management. Bad treatment does not stop here. It is often 
subjected to mutilation which injures it permanently. 

Shoeing. — Probably the most frequent and serious injury 
comes from bad shoeing. There is an old saying, "No foot no 
horse." The general purpose of shoeing is to preserve the exposed 
hoof from wear. Farm horses and horses not compelled to do 
heavy work on hard roads would be better off if never shod at all. 
When they are shod, the hoof loses its natural moisture. The horse 
is apt to go lame if the shoes are removed, unless it is kept in pas- 
ture until the hoof regains its natural condition. 

The frog is a natural cushion of gristle to lessen the shock of 
travel. It should never be trimmed nor touched with the knife. 
The horny wall should be interfered with as little as possible. The 
outside is covered with a natural varnish which should never be 
cut nor rasped off. Only the portion of the wall and sole on which 
the shoe rests should be touched. From this should be trimmed or 
rasped the portion which the shoe prevents from wearing off as it 
would naturally do on the unshod hoof. The hoof should be lev- 
elled carefully and the shoe made to fit the foot, not, as is 
too often done by ignorant blacksmiths, the foot made to fit the 
shoe. 

Checkrein. — A checkrein is a discomfort and disadvantage to 
a horse. Think how uncomfortable it would be for you to have 
your head fastened up in the same position for hours at a time ! 
The checkrein deprives the horse of the power of throwing its 



258 AGRICULTURE 

weight forward to pull a load. If a checkrein be used at all, it 
should not be tight, and it should be let down in pulling a heavy 
load or going uphill. 

Docking. — The horse's tail should never be docked. This is 
its fly brush and protection against enemies. When it is docked, 
the horse is made 'a life pasture for annoying insects.' 

EXERCISE 

1. Have you read "Black Beauty"? If not, do so. It is an in- 
teresting story of horse life, giving valuable suggestions as to care and 
treatment. 

2. Compare the best draft horse with the best light horse that you 
know. Make a list of the points of difference. Name three occasions 
on which you would prefer the light horse. Why ? Name three on 
which you would prefer the draft horse. Why? 

3. From the table on page 309 in the appendix make a balanced 
ration for a work horse weighing fifteen hundred pounds. 

SHEEP 

History. — There are many wild species of sheep in Asia, Africa, 
Europe, and on the western mountain ranges of America. The 
sheep was probably the first animal domesticated by man. A 
European species, the Merino, was brought by the Spaniards to 
the New World soon after its discovery. From this Spanish breed 
is descended most of the flocks of Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas. 

Sheep are natives of mountainous countries and do best on 
hilly land. They never by choice seek level, open land, swampy 
country, nor dense forests. 

Uses. — The animal is useful in many ways. Its flesh fur- 
nishes food, its fleece clothing, its skin leather, its bones fertilizers. 

Sheep Raising. — Sheep are docile and easily managed, require 
little care and attention, and need less grain than other kinds of 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 259 

live stock. Sheep feed chiefly on pa-ture, largely on weeds, and 
they improve the land on which they feed. They increase rapidly 
and mature early. They cost less to raise than cattle, and their 
flesh brings a higher price, and the fleece is clear profit. There 




Cyurtusy ut' Louisiana Agricultural Station 

Grade Lamb and Scrub Lamb 

These two lambs are the same age ; they were raised together, and given the same 
treatment and food. 

is always ready sale for lamb, mutton, and wool, and the price 
varies less than that of most other farm products. 

Every year there are imported into the United States half a mil- 
lion dollars' worth of mutton and from twenty-five to thirty million 
dollars' worth of wool, all of which might be produced at home. 
American farmers would not only reap the profits which now go 
abroad, but their land would be improved. 

No farm product makes so little demand on soil fertility as does 



26o 



AGRICULTURE 




Merino Sheep — a Wool Type 
Grand champion of St. Louis World's Fair, 1904. 



wool. The sale of a thousand dollars' worth of corn takes about 
three hundred dollars' worth of fertility from the land, the sale of 

an equal value of mutton 
takes about fifty dollars from 
the land, and of wool only 
three or four dollars. 

Breeds. — While all breeds 
furnish both wool and mut- 
ton, sheep are usually divided 
into wool breeds and mutton 
breeds, according to their 
chief purpose. 

Wool Breed. — The best- 
known wool breed is the Me- 
rino sheep. It is a native of Spain, is hardy, well adapted to warm 
climates, and is the only 
breed which is not subject to 
disease when kept in large 
flocks. The flocks of the 
southwestern states are de- 
scended from them. More 
than half the sheep of the 
United States are raised in 
the section west of the one 
hundredth meridian, known 
as 'the Range,' where they 
flourish on native grasses. 

M u 1 1 11 Bree ds. — The 
sheep raised in the eastern 
states are chiefly English mutton breeds. The most hardy and 
prolific of these and the most popular in the United States are 




Leicester Sheep — a Mution Type 

Grand champion of St. Louis World's Fair, 1904 ; 

weight, 420 lb. ; fleece record, 26 lb. 



DOiMESTIC ANIMALS 261 

what are called the 'down' breeds, the Southdown, Shropshire, 
Hampshire, and Oxfordshire. They have wool of medium fine- 
ness. The Southdown is more extensively raised in the United 
States than any other breed except the Merino. It is smaller, but 
hardier and more prolific than the other 'down' breeds. The 
Dorset is valued chiefly for the production of early lambs. 

The long-wooled mutton breeds are the Leicester, Lincoln, and 
Cots wold. 

Care of Sheep. — Where there are cheap lands, natural grasses, 
and open mild winters, sheep can be raised without costing their 
owner anything except for an occasional salting and the shearing. 
It is not, however, a good plan to raise any animal to see how much 
neglect it will bear. It should be given conditions and care to pro- 
duce best results. 

Sheep should be protected against dogs. They should have 
shelter, such as well-littered sheds on sunny slopes, protected from 
cold, wind, and rain. Sheep cannot bear close confinement or 
crowding. They need well-drained pasture; on marshy land they 
are subject to disease. They should have pure water, and be salted 
regularly. It is well to keep in a shed to which they have access a 
trough containing pulverized charcoal, ashes, salt, and sulj)hur. 

By nature sheep are timid and nervous. They need quiet 
handling and gentle treatment. A rough, harsh, careless, or im- 
patient master rarely reaps profit from them. 

Diseases. Fly. — The diseases to which they are most subject 
are lly, foot rot, and scab. The first is caused by a fly, the mag- 
gots of which should be killed before they eat their way into the 
body. The sheep should be smeared with tar or a carbolic acid 
ointment. 

Foot rot. — Foot rot is caused by a parasite which must be cut 
out; to the wound should be applied carbolic acid ointment. 



262 AGRICULTURE 

Scab. — Scab is a contagious disease caused by a parasite which 
gets under the skin. It causes the wool to fall and not only ruins 
the fleece but often weakens and kills the sheep. The parasite 
is killed by dipping the sheep in a wash containing sulphur, to- 
bacco, or lime and sulphur. Sheep should be dipped at least once 
a year to keep their skins clean and healthy. 

EXERCISE 

1. Do the farmers in your locality raise sheep? Do you think it 
would be a profitable business? Give reasons for your opinion. 

2. Why do sheep especially need protection against wet weather? 

3. At what season are they sheared and why ? 



GOATS 

Goat Raising. — Goat raising is a new and growing branch of 
stock raising in the United States. There are now about two 
million goats in the country. Every year about twenty million goat 
skins — worth about twenty-five million dollars — are imported 
into the United States from India, China, Russia, and other coun- 
tries. The leather is used for making gloves, shoes, and other 
articles. 

Breeds. — The Malta goats are especially prized for their milk; 
it is richer, more nourishing, and more wholesome than cow's milk. 
From goat's milk some of our best cheese is made. 

The goat most favored by American farmers is the Angora, Its 
native place is the province of Angora in Turkey. Some peculiar 
property of the atmosphere there makes the coats of animals, such 
as cats, dogs, and goats, especially beautiful, long, soft, and silky. 
The fleece of the Angora goat, called mohair, is used in the manu- 
facture of fine fabrics. 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 263 

Habits. — Goats are browsers by nature, and live on weeds and 
brush where most other animals would starve. They pass by grass 
and clover to feed on thistles, briers, and thorns, which other stock 
will not touch. They kill weeds and brush, and give native grasses 
a chance to spread, fertilized by their manure. 




Angora Goats 

Food and Care. — Except in winter, when they should be given 
a little sheaf oats, corn fodder, or good hay, goats find their own 
food. They should have salt once a week the year round. Their 
heavy fleece should be sheared early in spring. 

Goats are hardy, easily managed, and free from disease except 
when confined to low% marshy places. They are as profitable as 
sheep and less expensive, being also free from most diseases to 
which sheep are subject. 

EXERCISE 

Name three points in favor of goat keeping. Can you think of any 
objections to it ? 



264 



AGRICUtTURE 



HOGS 



History. — Our domesticated hogs are descended from the 
wild swine native to Europe, Asia, and Africa. These wild beasts 

are lean and scraggy, active and 
fierce. They live in swamps, 
jungles, and forests, and feed on 
vegetable and animal food. The 
wild hog was probably first domes- 
ticated in China. Through thou- 
sands of years of care, various 
breeds have been developed there 
which are "bladders of lard and 
fat." Hogs are now raised in 
almost every region outside the 
Arctic Circle. 

American and English Breeds. — 
Several breeds have Ix^en developed 
in the United States, which, like 
those of China, have much fat and 
little lean. The best-known Amer- 
ican breeds are the Chester White, 
Poland China, and Duroc Jersey 
or Jersey Red. 

The English improved breeds are descended from the native 
old English hog with foreign crosses. They are what are called 
bacon breeds, having longer bodies and legs and giving a larger 
proportion of lean meat than the Chinese and American hogs. 
Among the best-known English breeds are the Yorkshire, Berk- 
shire, Tamworth, and Essex. 




Scrub Hog 

At two years old, it weighs 50 lb. 
it pay to raise such stock ? 



Does 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



265 



Hog Feeding. — In the United States hogs are raised largely in the 
corn belt from Ohio to Kansas. There they are called ' mortgage 
lifters' because farmers who became poor raising corn for market 
got out of debt and prospered when they fed the cheap and abun- 
dant corn to hogs and sold meat instead of grain. Corn-fed hogs 
are fat and lardy, and are often disposed to disease. 

Hogs grow faster and are healthier when carried through the 
summer on green food, such as grass, clover, pea vines, and alfalfa, 




Berkshire Hogs 
A prize-winning herd of four, weighing 2700 lb. 

with a small ration of grain, and then are fattened largely on ce- 
reals, such as oats and corn. Recent feeding experiments show 
that they make larger and cheaper gains in winter when fed some 
bulky food, such as clover or alfalfa hay, in addition to their grain 
ration. For some unknown reason, cotton-seed meal, on which 
cattle thrive, is usually fatal to pigs, if fed any length of time. 

It is often profitable to plant lots in sweet potatoes, peanuts, and 
other crops to be harvested by the hogs themselves. 

Hogs are gross feeders, and are more ))roliric than any other 
domesticated animal, exccjjt the rabbit. Hog ilesh can be more 



266 



AGRICULTURE 



cheaply produced than any other meat. Hogs gain a pound in 
weight for foiir or five pounds of dry food, sheep gain one for nine, 
and cattle one for twelve. 

Disease. — Hogs are easy to keep well and are hard to cure when 
sick. If kept in dry, clean, well-ventilated quarters, supplied with 
plenty of pure water, and properly fed, they are apt to be healthy. 




Hogs hurdled on Cowpeas 
By use of hurdles, or movable fences, this field is grazed a part at a time. 



The most serious and fatal disease to which they are subject 
is cholera. This is contagious, and the bacteria which cause it 
may be carried by persons, animals, and streams. A stream which 
has its source outside the hog lot is a constant source of danger and 
a frequent source of infection. Few hogs recover from cholera 
and the treatment must be largely preventive. A mixture of salt, 
sulphur, and hardwood ashes should be kept in a trough in a shed 
to which hogs have access. Well and sick animals should be kept 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



267 



nrmiTTi I r 




separate, and all pens should be disinfected with lime and car- 
bolic acid washes. 

Profitable Breeds. — The most profitable breeds for the farmer 
are those which are prolific, vigorous, and of good disposition, 
which mature early, and thrive on feeds easily available. Black 
hogs are generally preferred in the South as they are thought 
to bear heat 
better. 

Earliness of 
maturity is one 
of the ad\an- 
tages of good 
breeds. It takes 
two years to get 

a 'scrub' or common hog to the weight to which an improved 
breed can be brought in nine months on the same feed. It 
must always be remembered, however, that breeds improved by 
care need care to keep up their good points. They cannot shift 
for themselves, like the 'razor back' and the prairie ranger. 

There is more profit in spring pigs pushed and killed in the fall 
than in those kept through the winter. It takes more food to keep 
and fatten hogs in cold weather. Moreover, with age and size the 
cost of keeping increases more rapidly than flesh. It is most 
profitable to sell a hog at two hundred or two hundred and fifty 
I)Ounds, as each additional hundred pounds takes about twenty- 
four per cent more food. 



A section of a hurdle, showing how it is fitted together. It is 
made of stout lumber and wire fencing. 



EXERCISE 

I. Why is it usually profitable to keep hogs on a farm? Can you 
think of ways in which the business may be managed so as to make it 
unprofitable ? 



268 



AGRICULTURE 



2. Name three points in favor of improved breeds; one in favor of 
'scrubs.' 

3. Consult the table on page 309 and make up a balanced ration for 
fattening hogs, using feeds that can be grown in your locality. 




POULTRY 

Poultry. — Poultry includes all fowls domesticated for meat 
and for eggs and feathers, such as hens, turkeys, guinea fowls, 

peafowls, ducks, geese, and 
pigeons. 

Hens. — Our domesticated 
hens are descended from the 
wild jungle fowls of India. 
They have been improved by 
centuries of care and selection 
so as to bring out the desired 
White Leghorns — an Eog Breed traits. The yearly valuc of 
their products is enormous. The American wheat crop in 1905 
was worth five hundred and 
twenty-five million dollars ; Ameri- 
can poultry products that year 
were worth over five hundred mil- 
lion dollars. 

Pure breeds are usually more 
profitable than common breeds 
which eat as much and pro- 
duce less. There are two great 
classes, — the Mediterranean, or 
egg-producing breeds, and the Asiatic, or meat breeds. 

Egg Breeds. — The chief egg breeds are the Leghorns, Houdans, 
Minorcas, and Spanish. 




Barred Plymouth Rocks — a 
General-purpose Breed 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



269 




White Bkahmas — a Meat Breed 



Meat Breeds. — Of the large meat breeds, the most popular are 
the Brahmas from India, the Cochins and Langshans from China, 
^nd the Games. These are all poor or fair layers, and good 
sitters. The light Brahmas 
are the largest; a hen of 
that breed weighs nine and a 
half pounds, a cock, twelve 
pounds. 

General-Purpose Breeds. — 
The Orpingtons, the Plymouth 
Rocks, the Wyandottes, and 
the Rhode Island Reds are 
general-purpose fowls. They 
are good layers, good sitters, 

and supply abundance of good meat. The Plymouth Rocks, 
Barred, White, and Buff, are the breeds most widely raised in 
America. 

Ducks. — Ducks mature early and furnish good meat. They 
are freer from disease than hens and grow faster. The Pekin duck 
is the most popular. Ducks are as greedy eaters as hogs, and they 
should not be fed with other fowls. They are not good mothers; 
if eggs arc not hatched in an incubator, it is best to hatch them under 
a hen and let her mother the ducklings till they are old enough 
to care for themselves. Contrary to the usual opinion, ducks do not 
need water except to drink, and can easily be raised without access 
to a pond or stream. 

Turkeys. — Our domestic turkeys are descended from the wild 
ones native to America. The Bronze is the largest and most 
popular breed; its gobblers weigh about thirty-six pounds and its 
hens about twenty pounds. The White Holland is a handsome 
and popular breed. 



2/0 



AGRICULTURE 




White Emuuen Geese 



Turkeys have been so recently domesticated that they are wilder 
and of more roving disposition than any other barnyard fowl. They 
seek out-of-the-way places for nests, and thrive best when allowed 
free range and outdoor roosts. The meat of the turkey is es- 
pecially prized, and is a fav^orite for 
Thanksgiving and Christmas din- 
ners. 

Geese. — Geese are vigorous and 
hardy and live on food that other 
poultry would reject. They do not 
mature till they are three years old, 
and they often live to be twenty- 
five or thirty years old. 

Guinea Fowls. — Guinea fowls are 
easily raised. They are industrious 
worm and bug destroyers. Their 
flesh is dark, but excellent in flavor. 

Peafowls. — Peafowls, formerly bred for table use, are now 
raised almost entirely as an ornamental breed and for their 
feathers. 

Food. — Fowls need a balanced ration just as much as do horses 
and cows. The nutritive ratio for fowls is i 14. They require a 
larger proportion of protein than most other animals. Where 
they have free range, they usually find seeds, grass, and insects that 
furnish a balanced ration to enable them to make meat and pro- 
duce eggs. Fowls kept in a poultry yard must have these needs 
supplied. 

Many good poultry-raisers feed their adult fowls three times a 
day, giving grain for breakfast, green food, such as clover and 
lettuce, for dinner, and mash containing meal or meat scraps for 
supper. 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



271 




A Good Dri:,king-trough for Fowls 



Starchy foods, such as sweet potatoes, are beneficial in small 

quantities; when they are fed too freely, fowls fatten and stop 

laying. Corn, also, is a fattening 

food which should be sparingly 

used. Wheat is good for fowls, 

and. oats is better still. It is 

well to scatter grain in straw or 

litter so that the fowls are com- 
pelled to scratch for it. The 

more exercise they take the 

more eggs they lay. "If you 

wish hens to pay their board, 

make them w^ork for it." They 

should be fed, but not overfed, 

a variety of wholesome food. To produce eggs in winter, fowls 

must have green food and warm houses. 

Fowls should always be supplied with gritty substances, such 

as coarse sand or crushed oyster shells. These aid digestion and 

furnish material for bones and eggshells. 

Water. — Fowls should always be provided with pure water. It 

should be arranged so 
that they have free 
access to it but can- 
not foul it. For this 
purpose it is well to 
use a long pan with 
a cover of slats two 
inches ai)art. 

Quarters. — To 

keep poultry healthy, they must have clean, well-drained quarters. 

The nests should be arranged so as to be easily moved and 




3^fefe-=^J-'- 



A Small Henhouse, with Scratching-shed attached 



2/2 



AGRICULTURE 




Egg Product of a One-year-old Hen 



cleaned. Perches, also, should be movable; they should be low, 
not more than two and a half or three feet from the ground if large 

breeds arc raised. 

In cold sections espe- 
cially, there should be 
a scratching-shcd at- 
tached to the house. 
It should open to the 
south so as to give sun- 
shine, and the fioor 
should be covered with 
straw. 

The house and shed 
should be kept free 
from lice and mites. 
Lice live on fowls. 
Fowls should be i)rotected against them by insect powder dusted 
under their feathers, and by having access to dust boxes filled 
with dust or fine, loose earth. 
Mites are blood-sucking para- 
sites that live in the house and 
attack the fowls at night. They 
can be destroyed by spraying 
and washing the inside of the 
house, the nests, and perches, 
often and thoroughly, with ker- 
osene, kerosene emulsion, or 
whitewash containing carbolic 
acid. 

Diseases. — Filth and dampness are directly or indirectly the 
cause of most poultry diseases. Cholera, the most fatal and con- 




Egg Product ok a Iwo-veak-old Hen 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



273 




Egg Pkoduct ok a Iukkk-ykak-old 
Hen 



tagious of these diseases, is often the result of bad food, impure 
water, or overcrowding in a dirty house. It is caused by bac- 
teria which are taken in through 
the mouth. Feeding and watering 
places should be disinfected and 
kept clean. Sick fowls should be 
killed and burned or buried deep. 

Care. — It must always be re- 
membered that good breeds are not 
enough. Good food and good care 
are needed. Improved breeds given 
proper care yield the largest profits 
in meat and eggs. But when they are neglected and left to 

scratch for 
a living, the 
common 
fowls that 
are used to 
shifting for 
themselves 
do as well or 
better than 
improved 
breeds. In 
any case, it 
is the young 
fowls that 
are ])rofit- 

An Incubator and Brooder able. A hen 

three years old is usually past her usefulness as an egg pro- 
ducer. 




274 



AGRICULTURE 



Incubators and Brooders. — When fowls are raised on a large 
scale, it is convenient and economical to use incubators and bfood- 
ers. In the incubators the eggs are hatched by artificial heat, and 
the brooders furnish homes for the little chickens. The brooders 
must be kept at the proper temperature, and the chickens must 
be fed often and little at a time. Raising chickens requires con- 
stant attention to details which is gained by experience, 

EXERCISE 

Would you not like to raise some fowls ? They require little room, but 
should have proper care. You can begin with one hen. If she is kept 
alone, her eggs will be infertile and will not hatch. What will you feed 
her in summer ? What food and care will you give her in winter so as 
to keep her laying? 

BEES 

Breeds. — There is as much difference in breeds of bees as in 
breeds of cattle or sheep. A colony of the common East India 
bees produces about ten or twelve pounds of honey a season; a 
single colony of Cyprian bees has been known to produce a thou- 
sand pounds. 

Colonies, or swarms, of our native brown or black bees make 
their homes in hollow trees. These bees are often kept on farms; 
they are spiteful, less able to protect themselves against insect ene- 
mies than some other breeds, and produce less honey. Cyprian 
bees are industrious but cross. The Italians are good workers and 
less spiteful. The Corniolans are gentle, hardy, and industrious. 
The Caucasians, a breed recently introduced into this country 
by the Department of Agriculture, bid fair to become popular. 
They are gentle and arc excellent honey-gatherers. 

Beekeeping. — Beekeeping is most profitable in localities 
where blossoms are abundant. Buckwheat, asters, and mints, 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



275 



clovers, alfalfa, and other legumes, the linden, tulip, or poplar, and 
fruit trees are favorites with bees. Fruit trees shov.Id net be 
sprayed in blossom time for fear of poisoning 
the insect visitors. Even when a fruit grower 
is not a beekeeper, he should protect bees on 
account of their service as pollen carriers. 

There are many successful beekeepers in 
large cities. Their colonies find abundant 
food in the flowers, shrubs, and trees of 
gardens, parks, and streets. Beekeeping is 
light and profitable work, and pleasant 
also when one is freed from the fear and 
danger of stings. If bees are dealt with 
gently and smoked properly, they are 
easily managed. 

Bee Colony. — The life of a bee family, 
or colony, is very interesting. In spring 
there are three kinds of bees in each 
colony. There is one queen, several hun- 
dred drones, and about thirty-five or forty 
thousand workers. 

Queen. — The queen bee lays all the eggs — 
sometimes as many as four thousand in twenty- 
four hours — and leads the colony when it 
swarms. 

Drones. — The drones, or males, gather no 
honey and have no sting. 

Workers. — The worker bee is the smallest, but on it falls all 
the labor of making comb, beebread, and honey, and of caring 
for the larva2, or undeveloped bees. It has a sting to protect 
itself and to attack its enemies. In the fall the workers drive 





Worker 
CoRNioLAN Bees 



2/6 AGRICULTURE 

out the drones, leaving them to starve or stinging them to death 
if they try to return. 

It takes about twenty-one days for eggs to become perfect bees. 
Young workers begin Hfe as nurses for the larvae. When about 
ten days old, they try their wings; in a few days they are busy 
with field work, making honey. 

Swarms. — As soon as the oldest queen's cell is sealed, the old 
queen leaves the hive, followed by many bees. This is called a 
swarm. It gathers in a mass about the queen on a branch of 
a tree or elsewhere. The beekeeper cuts off this branch or 
shakes the bees into a basket or on a cloth and puts them into 
an empty hive. 

Hives. — Good hives with movable frames should be used, so 
that filled combs may be taken out at will. In order to let the bees 
devote their time to honey making, artificial combs are sometimes 
used, or natural combs have the honey removed in a machine called 
a honey extractor and are put back to be refilled. A tin-lined 
entrance to the hive protects the bees against their enemies, mice. 
An anti-robbing entrance guards against robber bees which are 
apt to steal honey from weak hives. 

Winter Care. — The beekeeper should be careful not to deprive 
his colony of winter food. When the honey is taken in late fall, a 
thick sirup made of sugar should be put where the bees have access 
to it. They soon store^this up for winter food. In severe climates 
the hives should be kept through the winter in a dry, well-venti- 
lated, moderately warm place, such as a good cellar. 

EXERCISE 

1. What flowers have you seen visited by bees? At what season do 
bees make most honey and why? 

2. Have you ever seen a queen bee? Can you distinguish a drone 
from a worker? 



OUTLINE OF CHAPTER SEVEN 

MISCELLANEOUS 
Trees : 

Uses of trees: 
Productive: 
Wood for fuel 
Timber for building 
Pulp for paper 
Yield fruit, nuts, spices 
Supply sugar, tar, pitch, turpentine, gums 
Protective: 

Regulate water supply 
Temper climate 
Serve as wind breaks 
Forest enemies: 

Fungi, insects, wind, grazing and browsing animals, fire, man 
Forestry and destructive lumbering 
Tree ])]anting 
Farm Tools: 
Advantages: 
Save labor 
Save time 
Do work better 
Requirements: 

Proper use and adjustment 
Repair and care 
Good Roads: 
Advantages: 

Lessen cost of hauling 
Increase ease of intercourse 

277 



2/8 MISCELLANEOUS 

Requirements: 
Proper grade 
Good drainage 
Well-prepared surface: 

Steel, stone, gravel, earth 
Care and repair 
The Help of Science: 
General 

United States Department of Agriculture 
State Agricultural Experiment Stations 
School Gardens: 
Suggestions 
School grounds 
Landscape gardening 



CHAPTER SEVEN 



MISCELLANEOUS 



TREES 



Tree in Winter. — What a beautiful, wonderful, useful thing is 
a tree ! Look at one as it stands outlined against the winter sky. 
How substantial are its trunk and branches ! It is hard to realize 
that this solid body is built up from the invisible air, yet so it is. 
Only, one part in one hundred of dry wood is derived from the soil ; 
the other ninety-nine parts are derived from the air. Half of the 
substance is carbon; the remainder is chiefly oxygen and hydrogen 
with a little nitrogen. 

Tree in Summer. — Consider the tree in summer. There are 
hundreds and thousands of leaves, 
busy in a factory very unlike the 
noisy ones of man. What a wonder- 
ful amount of work they do ! Grow- 
ing, they prepare food for the tree, 
and make a shade grateful to man 
and beast; fallen, they serve as a blan- 
ket to keep the earth warm and moist, 
and form mold and humus to enrich 
the soil. 

With all his sciences, man cannot understand exactly the pro- 
cesses of their work nor the power by which sap mounts to the 
topmost leaf on the tree fifty or a hundred or three hundred fee^ 
from the ground. 

279 




A SVCAMDKl, 1 l;l.K IN SUMMKK 

AND IN Winter 



28o AGRICULTURE 

Tree Products. — Orchard and nut-bearing trees are valued for 
their fruits. The sap of some trees furnishes useful products — the 
maple yields sugar; the pine supplies tar, pitch, and turpentine; 
the camphor produces gum. Millions of trees are cut every year 
to supply pulp for paper making. Tens and hundreds of millions 
are cut to furnish wood for fuel and timber for building purposes, 
from a matchbox to a house. 

Lumbering. — Lumbering, or cutting trees for market, ranks 
fourth among the great industries of the United States. It oc- 
cupies many men in the eastern states and along the Gulf Coast. 
It is the chief industry in the Northwest, in the states of Washing- 
ton, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, where there are original forests 
of fir, spruce, hemlock, and cedar. From sunrise to sunset the year 
round, ax and saw are busy, harvesting the great crop which it 
has taken centuries to grow. 

Indirect Benefits of Trees. — Suppose we could do without the 

product of trees — fruits, nuts, 
resins, gums, material for fuel 
and building. We might use iron 
and steel for fences and ships ; 
cement and stone for building 
purposes ; coal, oil, gas, and elec- 
=^^-^3 tricity for fuel. Still we should 
al be unable to do without trees. 
Their indirect benefits are greater 

, ^ ^ ^ than their direct ones. Forests, 

An Oak Tree, growing in the Open 

which are trees in masses, regu- 
late the water supply, temper the extremes of heat and cold, and 
break the force of wind and storm. 

Effect on Water Supply. — You have learned how important to 
agriculture is the supply of water. Now let us see how this is 




MISCELLANEOUS 28 1 

affected by trees. Examine some wood mold, as wc call the soil 
of the forest. It is loose and damp, made up of decayed and 
decaying leaves and twigs. The wood mold and tree roots form a 
vast sponge to catch and hold the rainfall. They give it out gradu- 
ally and regularly by capillarity and evaporation and through 
streams. They protect the land against surface washing and, to 
a great extent, against loss of water by evaporation. 

With the wood mold compare the hard compact earth on a 
barren hillside. Instead of sinking in this, much water runs off, 
leaving it hard and dry. It is subject to floods and to droughts 
which affect the forest but little. 

If you consult a map of the United States, you find that the head 
waters of its great rivers are in the mountains. Nature has cov- 
ered the mountain sides with forests, which store up floods and 
supply the waters gradually to the streams. What will happen 
if these forests be cut? The mountains will be changed from 
reservoirs to mere watersheds. Down their steep slopes floods 
will rush to the valleys and plains below, destroying and bearing 
away crops, plantations, villages. 

More than one third of the seaward-going water of the United 
States makes its way through the Mississippi. How important it 
is to have forest reservoirs on its head waters, and to use and dis- 
tribute the water along its course as evenly as possible ! If this be 
not done, the fertile valley will finally be destroyed. It has been 
neglected so far, and every year the levees are piled higher, every 
year the flood-mark rises. 

It is necessary to j)reserve forests not only to regulate the flow of 
streams, but to give a regular supply of water for irrigation. Irri- 
gation is needed in nearly one third of the United States. Without 
forests, it is impossible. 

National Forests. — Since 1891 the United States government 



282 



AGRICULTURE 






Fungi on an Oak Tree 



has set apart sixty-one forest reservations, containing over sixty-one 
million acres, at the head waters of streams and on high land in 
the West. 

Forest Enemies. — What are the chief enemies of the forest which 
is so useful, so necessary to man? They are fungi, wind, insects, 

graziag and browsing animals, fire, and 
man himself. 

Fungi. — Like other plants of the 
higher orders, trees have fungous pests 
that cause decay and death. 

Wind. — Windstorms often uproot 
trees and in certain sections injure and 
destroy miles of forests. 

Insects. — Insects frequently kill trees 
and even whole forests. Some, such as 
ants and borers, burrow into the wood until it is honeycombed. 
Others, such as the larvae of sawflics and moths, kill the trees by 
destroying the foliage. 

Grazing. — Wild and domestic animals do harm in various 
ways. Pasturing in moderation is not harmful; but large 
herds and flocks injure forest soil by trampling and close 
grazing, and they bruise and break young trees. Sheep and goats 
w^hich browse on the foliage are most injurious. 

Fire. — Next to man, the great enemy of the forest is fire. It 
often sweeps over miles of land, killing young trees and injuring 
old ones. In the decaying wood, worms finish the work of destruc- 
tion begun by fire. Even the soil is destroyed by being deprived 
of humus. 

Man. — Man, directly or indirectly, is the most destructive of all 
the eijemies of the forest. He fells trees in vast quantities, and by 
carelessness and bad methods he increases the harm done. He 



MISCELLANEOUS 



283 



starts forest fires; he cuts wood so as to expose the forest to the 
damage of wind, insects, and fungi; he inflicts injury by over- 
grazing, especially with sheep and goats. Too often he treats his 
friend, the forest, as if it were a deadly enemy that he is bent on 
destroying. This attitude is the natural result of the early state 





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FOR-KST Land in Minnp;sota laid wa.ste hy Lumhering and Fire 

of affairs in this country. When settlers first came to the New 
World, it was necessary to make clearings and cut forests. Thus 
it came about that, "In the old pioneer days the American had 
but one thought about a tree and that was to cut it down." 

But conditions have changed. For the sake of farming and other 
interests, we need to preserve forests. This does not mean that 
trees should never be cut. As other crops should be harvested, 



284 AGRICULTURE 

so should that of the woods. The old trees should be cut so as to 
spare and benefit the young ones and thus renew the forest. It is 
truly said that a forest is more than a storehouse of wood; it is 
a factory for wood and a reservoir for water. 

.Destructive Lumbering. — Suppose a lumberman who feels no 
interest in forest preservation has a hundred thousand acres of land 
in original forest, containing six hundred million feet of lumber. 
He puts in a big plant so as to cut a hundred million feet a year. He 
cuts everything large enough to saw, and injures and destroys 
the young growth. Fungi, insects, and fire are given opportunity 
for their deadly work. At the end of six years the lumberman 
has the money for his six hundred million feet of lumber, but he 
has destroyed the forest. 

Forestry. — Suppose a similar tract of land comes into the pos- 
session of a forester, a man who wishes to sell lumber and also to 
preserve the forest. He puts in a smaller plant, cuts the mature 
trees, and leaves the thrifty young ones to develop. At the end of 
six years he has taken in less money than the lumberman, but he 
has property which is paying profits and increasing in value. With 
the old trees out of the way, the young ones have more room, 
air, sunshine, and plant food, and so grow faster. 

Do not the two instances remind you of the old story of the 
man with the goose that laid golden eggs? The wasteful lum- 
berman kills his goose, the forester keeps his to lay golden eggs. 

The economical care of woodland is the duty not only of the 
men who control vast areas, but also of the farmer. It is im- 
portant for him to take care of his wood lot, though it be only a few 
acres. By cutting old trees and sparing growing ones, he can pre- 
serve and increase its usefulness. Rough land and hillsides are 
more valuable in forest than for farming purposes. It is often 
profitable to plant trees on such land. 



MISCELLANEOUS 



285 



Tree Planting. — The planting of trees is most important on 
prairie land, where they are needed for wind breaks and for wood 




Virgin Stand of Southern Vei.i.ow Pine 

and fuel. These vast, treeless plains roll their sea of verdure from 
the Missouri River westward to the foothills of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. 



2B6 AGRICULTURE 

In the prairie state of Nebraska, Arbor Day was originated in 
1872 by Mr. Morton, who afterward became Secretary of Agricul- 
ture. Arbor Day, set apart for the planting of trees, is now ob- 
served in nearly every state of the Union and in many countries of 
Europe. 

It is important to plant trees properly and to give them proper 
care. Their culture is simple, consisting of keeping the soil mellow 
and free from weeds for three or four years till they so shade the 
ground as to make this unnecessary. Animals should not be per- 
mitted to bruise the young trees nor to browse on the tender shoots. 

The kinds of trees to be planted depend on locality and condi- 
tions; like other plants, trees have certain requirements as to 
moisture and climate. The European larch thrives on rough rocky 
soils and on wet undrained ones. It is hardy and of rapid growth, 
and its timber is durable. The catalpa is a beautiful tree that bears 
large clusters of fragrant white blossoms. It grows rapidly and its 
durable wood is valuable especially for fence posts and railroad 
ties. 

EXERCISE 

1. Make a list of the orchard and the nut-bearing trees of your 
section. Name ten useful tree products. 

2. Get a specimen of wood mold and one of soil from a barren hill- 
side. Compare the two. 

3. Do you not know some spot that would be improved by having a 
tree grow there? Select a sapling of the kind that you think likely to 
thrive in that location and set it out. Remember that it is better to have 
one tree well set and cared for than a dozen carelessly set and neglected. 
Follow carefully the rules for transplanting on pages 63 and 172. 

4. Does your school observe Arbor Day ? If it has not done so in the 
past, it will be well to begin this year. 



MISCELLANEOUS 



287 



FAR^I TOOLS 

Use of Tools. — Agriculture, you know, cannot be carried on 
without tools. The poorest farmer has his hoe and plow and grain 
blade. On the best farms there is an array of tools — plows and 
harrows to prepare soil ; planters, drills, and transplanters to j^ut in 
crops; cultivators, horse hoes, and weeders to till them; diggers, 
mowers, reapers, harvesters, huskers, shredders, threshers to harvest 




Implements used in producing the Crop of Corn illustrated on Page 142 

products and prepare them for use. Many of these are recent in- 
ventions; most of them have been made or perfected by Americans. 

The Plow. — The first agricultural tools were few in number and 
simple in form. Consider, for instance, the plow which is the 
oldest of all. It was made first of the crooked branch of a tree, 
pointed and hardened by fire. This was drawn by hand. Then it 
was adapted to draft animals, such as oxen and horses. By 
degrees it took its present shape, but it was still made of wood. 
Then the wooden parts were' protected by wrought iron. 

About the end of the eighteenth century, a cast-iron j^low- 
share, or point, was invented. At first American farmers would 



288 



AGRICULTURE 




VVURKING A CkUl' UllH HAND HuES 




IliiKM. UoK, OR Hoeing Machine 
This machine does as much work as several hand hoes, and does it better. 



MISCELLANEOUS 



289 



not use it. Seeing that weeds as well as crop plants responded to 
the better cultivation, they said that it poisoned the land and made 
weeds grow. Gradually, however, it came into use, only to give 
way in turn to the share made of chilled steel. Now there are steel 
gang plows that cut ten or more furrows at a time. Run by 




Corn Planter 

This implement drills fertilizer and drops and covers the grain. Formerly three men were 
required to do this work. 

steam or electric power, they do the work of ten men and thirty 
or forty horses. 

Profits from Use of Good Tools. — Buying good tools suitable 
for the cultivation of his crops is one of the best investments a 
farmer can make. They save labor and time and do the work 
better than it could otherwise be done. 

Tools save Labor. — Good tools save labor by enabling one man 
or one team to do the work of two or more. It would take several 
men to stir as much soil and destroy as many weeds in one day as 
does the horse hoe or cultivator, or to cut as much hay or grain as 



290 



AGRICULTURE 




A Useful Harrow made of Heavy 
Plank 



does the mower or reaper. The cost of wages and board for 
extra farm hands is thus saved. Thousands of dollars are paid 
in wages every year for work that could be done with less' expense 
and trouble by the use of machinery. Moreover, the farmer who 
has his laborer in the shed is sure of getting it in the field when it 
is needed. This is not always the case when he has to depend on 
hiring workmen. '' 

Tools save Time. — Good tools do work more rapidly than it 
can be done by hand. Thus they save time, and nowhere is it 

truer than on the farm that time 
is money. Work done at the 
right time is the work that pays. 
The soil needs to be stirred when 
it is in proper condition; in a few 
days or hours, it maybe too wet 
or too dry. Crops need to be cultivated and harvested and housed 
at the right time; if this be not done, they may be injured or 
lost. 

With the tools in use in 1830 it took a man ten hours and twenty- 
five minutes to plow, harrow, and sow with wheat one acre of land; 
with the combined steam gang- plow, harrow, and seeder now in use, 
it takes forty-five minutes to do the same work. In 1830 to reap 
that acre of wheat with the cradle and thresh it with the flail took a 
man twenty-three hours and twenty minutes; with the steam har- 
vester seven men can in nine minutes cut and thresh the same 
amount of grain and put it in bags ready for the mill. 

Tools save Money. — - By saving labor and time, improved tools 
reduce the cost of producing a crop. The farmers of the West 
have taken advantage of this fact. With little labor and at the least 
possible cost, they raise large crops of grain. Their level land, 
free from stumps and stones, is well adapted to the use of ma- 



MISCELLANEOUS 



291 



chinery. On rocky, hilly land machinery cannot be used to so 
great advantage. 

Tools do Good Work. — Improved tools often do work better 
than it was done by old methods. Modern plows and harrows 
break the soil deeper and fine it better than the old wooden plows; 




Courtesy of Louisiana Agricultural Statiou 

Shredding Corn 
This machine takes the ears from the stalks, husks the ears, and shreds the stalks, blades, 

and husks 

The grain drill sows seed more evenly than it can be distributed by 
hand. The steam thresher separates grain from the straw and 
chaff better than does the old-fashioned flail. A cutting or shred- 
ding machine is needed to make cornstalks into good fodder. 

Weight of Machinery. — Much of the im])roved machinery is 
heavy and requires large strong horses and mules or steam power 
to work it. A machine, like a man, needs weight and strength in 
order to do a great deal of work. 



292 AGRICULTURE 

Tools to Use. — Every farmer should know and use the tools 
which give the best results for his land and his crops. The shape 
of a plow, for instance, should be adapted to the soil and to the pur- 
pose for which it is to be used. Every plow should, as farmers say, 
'swim free,' requiring little pressure on the handles to guide it. 
It should ' enter the ground easily, run steadily, and clean itself well.' 

Care of Tools. — Good tools, as has been said, are a good in- 
vestment for the farmer. But he loses the profit on his investment 
if by misuse or neglect he changes good tools into bad ones. Every 
year farm machinery worth millions of dollars is injured and lost 
by lack of care. Tools should be kept clean and well oiled, the 
burs tight, with all parts properly adjusted. A machine is no 
stronger than its weakest part. Its usefulness ends when this is 
broken by careless use, or worn out by friction caused by improper 
adjustment, dirt, and lack of oil. Replacement of old parts by 
new ones is expensive. A good machine may have its life so 
shortened by misuse and neglect as to be a source of loss instead 
of profit to its owner. 

Tools should be protected against exposure to weather. The 
rust of metal and the weathering of woodwork during a winter's 
exposure injures tools more than does a season's use. When plows 
and other tools are laid by, even for a few weeks, they should be 
cleaned, wiped dry, and protected against rust. Needed repairs 
should then be made so as to have them ready for use next time. 

On every farm there is needed a shed or house for tools. This 
should be so arranged that heavy machinery can be driven in at 
one door and out at another. 

Outbuildings. — Outbuildings should be arranged as conveniently 
as possible, at the back of the house. They should be connected 
with the house by walks of gravel, cinders, sand, plank, or ce- 
ment. The stable should not be on the windward side of the 



MISCELLANEOUS 293 

house. The outbuildings should not be arranged so that it is 
necessary to go through the stable yard in order to reach the stable, 
crib, or silo. The silo should be near the barn, and should be 
strong and air-tight and smooth inside. 

EXERCISE 

1. Name and describe three necessary farm tools. Describe one 
improved tool and tell the advantages of its use. 

2. Suppose a farmer buys a corn planter for sixteen dollars that saves 
him every year three dollars and a half in labor. How long must it last 
to repay cost ? If repairs every year cost ninety cents, how much longer 
must it last to repay cost? 

3. Examine and compare the tools used by different farmers of your 
neighborhood. Compare cost and work, and estimate their value to the 
farmer. 

GOOD ROADS 

Disadvantages of Bad Roads. — Roads are of importance to 
many people, but most of all to those who live on farms and have 
to haul all their produce over them and pass over them for all 
communication with the outside world. Bad roads interfere with 
both the social and the business Ufe of the farm. They increase 
greatly the labor and expense of marketing a crop. In many 
cases they render it impossible to market perishable crops, such as 
melons, fruits, and vegetables. It is so disagreeable to travel on 
bad roads, that they lessen church and school attendance and 
neighborly visiting. 

As soon as farmers want good roads enough to insist upon having 
them, every bad road in our country will be replaced by a good 
one. The millions of dollars which arc now wasted every year 
on bad roads will be used to maintain good ones. Instead of 



294 



AGRICULTURE 



having the worst roads of any civilized country in the world, the 
United States will have the best. 

What makes Roads Bad. — What makes a road bad ? If you 
ride a bicycle, you have learned some things from experience. You 
know how tiresome it is to climb hills; you go far out of the way to 




The Condition of this Road is due to Lack of Proper Grai)in(. am> 

Drainage 



avoid one that is long and steep. It is unpleasant to ride on a 
road rough with stones, roots, ruts, and mudholes. It is more 
difficult to travel on a soft yielding surface than on a hard firm one. 
These things, which make a road bad for you, make it bad for a 
horse and determine how heavy a load he can pull. 

Let us consider these points separately. 

Grade. — The grade, or ascent, is a matter of prime impor- 
tance. This requires more careful consideration in laying out a 



MISCELLANEOUS 



295 



road than any other point, and yet it is often left to chance. A 
footpath up hills and across swamps becomes a bridle path, then a 
neighborhood road, then a public highway. Often it is impossible 
to make a good road along such a route. Money and labor spent 
on it are wasted. A public road, especially in a hilly country, 
should be laid out by a good road engineer. It should go around 
hills or along their sides instead of across them. 

It is much more important to have grades gradual than roads 
straight. Increased ease of travel more than makes up for in- 




Sketch showing the Numher of Horses recjuired to haul the Same Load 
OVER Different Grades 

creased distance. A horse that can pull two thousand pounds 
on a level road can pull only four fifths as much, or sixteen 
hundred pounds, when the grade is tw^o feet to the hundred; 
when the grade is ten feet to the hundred he can pull only five 
hundred pounds, or one fourth as much as on a level road. A 
public road should, of course, be as straight as good grading 
will allow, but the grade should not be more than three feet in a 
hundred. 

For practical purposes, a road is no better than its worst part. 
Take, for instance, the case of a road almost level except for one hill 
that has a ten per cfcnt grade. A farmer who has to haul produce 
along the road can put on his team no heavier load than it can 
pull up that hill. He would gladly travel a longer road that 



296 AGRICULTURE 

avoids the steep grade and enables him to carry his produce at 
one load instead of two. 

Drainage. — Drainage is another important point. Water is 
the great road destroyer. It makes mudholes on level land, 
gullies on hills, and ruts everywhere. The only way to protect a 
road against injury from surplus water is to have on each side 
ditches below the level of the roadbed. 

The roadbed should be highest in the middle and slope to each 
side, having a fall of one inch to each two or three or four feet. 
Surface ditches should never cross the road; there should be 




Cross Section of a Good Road and a Bad Road 



The good road slopes to the sides ; the bad one, indicated by dotted line, slopes to the 

middle. 

undcrdrains for this purpose. There should be underdrains in 
low wet places also. These should be either tile drains or ditches 
filled with stones and brush as described on page 88. 

Surface. — Another matter of importance is the road surface. A 
hard smooth surface is best. On a steel road one horse can pull 
as much as twenty on a common dirt road. The best roadbed is 
steel; next to that is stone. A good durable road is made by 
putting a layer of hard, broken stone on a good foundation, then 
a layer of smaller stones, crushed and rolled so as to obtain a hard, 
smooth surface. The first cost of steel or stone roads is large, 
but they are so durable and recjuire so few repairs that they are 
cheap in the long run. On an old road in New Jersey twenty- 
five baskets of produce was considered a load ; the dirt road 
was replaced by a well-graded stone one, and on this a hundred or 
a hundred and twenty-five baskets of produce are carried at a load. 



MISCELLANEOUS 



297 



Well-packed gravel on a good foundation makes a good road. 
Ordinary earth roads can be greatly improved by proper grad- 
ing and drainage, and by frequent rolling and dragging, so as 
to keep the surface smooth and hard. The system practiced by 




A Good Road 

A year ago two horses could haul only two bales of cotton over this road ; after improve- 
ment, the same horses haul twelve bales. 



Mr. King, of Missouri, has been adopted by thousands of farmers 
throughout the country and has improved thousands of miles of 
roads. The road is dragged after each rain or thaw with a split- 
log drag so hitched that the earth is drawn toward the center 
of the road. This drag is drawn down one side of the road and 



298 AGRICULTURE 

back the other. It distributes the moist earth evenly and pre- 
pares a smooth hard surface from which rain runs off. 

Care of Roads. — No matter how well built a road is, it becomes 
bad if it is not given proper care. Drains should be kept open ; 
depressions should be filled with the material of the roadbed before 
they become mudholes. It is easier and less costly to keep a road 
good than to repair a bad one. 

EXERCISE 

Compare the best road or street with the worst one that you know. 
What are the chief points of difference? How could the bad one be 
improved ? 

THE HELP OF SCIENCE 

Work of Farmers., — Year after year, century after century, 
farmers learned facts by observation and developed methods by 
experiments. These facts and methods were handed down from 
father to son and grandson. They were accepted and practiced 
with little knowledge of the underlying principles. 

Studies of Scientists. — Instead of investigating and explaining 
these principles, students devoted themselves chiefly to pure 
science. Chemists, for instance, gave farmers little more aid than 
did astronomers. The last sixty years, however, has witnessed a 
great change. Scientists have turned their attention more and more 
to practical subjects. Chemists have analyzed soils, learned what 
elements plants need for food and in what forms these must be 
supplied; they have found out which of these available elements 
are sometimes lacking, and how they may be supplied by chemicals. 
The result of these investigations is the production and use of mil- 
lions of dollars', worth of fertilizers and a vast increase in the pro- 
ductive power of land. 



MISCELLANEOUS ■ 299 

As you learned in connection with stock feeding, scientists have 
studied animal foods and food values. The application of the 
principles discovered by them has made stock feeding less costly 
and more profitable. 

United States Department of Agriculture. — Our government, 
through the work of jjractical scientists in the Department of Agri- 
culture, does much to develop the great industry which every year 
produces over half of the wealth of the country. The benefits 'of 




-r^ 



The New Building qi.- the Dei-aktment ok .A.griculture 

the Department of Agriculture extend over all the country. The 
Department is divided into parts, called Bureaus, each ha\ing a 
special line of work. 

State Experiment Stations. — There is in each state an x^gricul- 
tural Experiment Station supported by government and state 
funds. These stations carry on scientific agriculture along lines 
adapted to the special industries and conditions of the states. The 
work of the Illinois Station in corn breeding has been worth mil- 
lions of dollars to farmers in corn-growing sections. The Tennessee 
Station, through careful selection, has developed strains of wheat 
and barley that make good crops in the South where other varie- 
ties do not thrive. The North Dakota Station originated the 



300 



AGRICULTURE 



use of formalin to destroy smut on grain — making an annual 
saving in that state alone of three million dollars. Every station 
is doing interesting and helpful work for the farmers. 

Department and State Publications. — The results of the work of 
the Department of Agriculture and of State Stations are published 
in pamphlets, called bulletins. 

The Year Book published annually by the Department of Agri- 
culture is sent free on request. Direct your ap])lication to the con- 




Barn AND Silo at the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station 

gressman of your district or to either of the United States senators 
of your state. 

The Farmers' Bulletins published by the Department of Ag- 
riculture are sent free on request. Direct your application to your 
congressman or to one of your senators or to the Secretary of 
Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 

The Bulletins of the State Experiment Stations are sent free on 
request to any person in the state. Write to the Director of the 
Agricultural Experiment Station of your state for the bulletins 
you wish, or ask to have your name put on the permanent mailing 
list to receive all its bulletins. 

On request to the directors, valuable bulletins can often be 
obtained from other State Stations at little or no cost. 

A list of State Experiment Stations is given on page 312. 



MISCELLANEOUS 301 



SCHOOL GARDENS 

School Gardens. — There are over a hundred thousand school 
gardens in Europe, and thousands have been estabhshed in the 
United States v^ithin the last few years. In the grounds of the De- 
partment of Agriculture in Washington city there is a model gar- 
den. In a general garden are raised 
our agricultural staples, — tobacco, 
cereals, grasses, and fiber plants, such 
as cotton and flax. In his or her in- 
dividual plot each pupil raises vege- 
tables and flowers. Work in these 
gardens trains habits of observation 
and gives practical knowledge of our 
garden, orchard, and field crops and 
their care. 

Size and Arrangement. — The size 
of a school garden, and whether there 
are general or individual beds, depend 
upon the grounds available for the pur- 
pose. There should be plots, if only 
, ... A Young Gardener 

large enough to contam a lew plants, 

for the staple crops of the section and for common vegetables and 
flowers. A large garden should be plowed ; a small one should 
be spaded. Walks should be laid off between the beds. It is 
well to have the rows run north and south, as the plants thus 
get more sunshine. Tall-growing plants should be put on the 
north side. 

Suggestions. — For vegetables choose common, easily-grown ones, 
such as lettuce, radishes, onions, tomatoes, beans, beets, and com. 




302 



AGRICULTURE 




_ ^:^4s;^i;^a^:j^ 






For flowers select hardy ones, such as phlox, pansies, verbenas, 
and California poppies. Test seeds for purity and vitality, and 
plant them in soil made firm and mellow. Do not crowd the 
rows or plants. Cul- 
tivate the garden 
well and keep it free 
from weeds. Keep 
the walks smooth and 
clean. If possible, 
continue the work in 
vacation and have an 
exhibition of the best 
fruits and vegetables. 
Plants for trans- 
planting may be 
raised from slips set in 

a box of sand, kept damp. Tomato, cabbage, lettuce, and other 

plants may be raised 
from seed in a hotbed. 
The schoolroom is 
made more attractive 
by a window garden, 
in which grow gera- 
niums and other plants. 
Ferns flourish in a 
northern exposure. 
The Chinese sacred 
lily will grow and 
blossom if the bulb 
be put in a pan of 



Flat, or Tray, for starting Plants for 
Transplanting 




A City Child's Window Garden — 
"Three Broken Eggshells 



water with sand and pebbles at the bottom. 








A SCHUOLIIULSK UF A NOT UNCOMMON TVl'E 




Thk Same, imi'Koveu bv tul I'L/VNun^j oi- Tkkes and \im. 



304 AGRICULTURE 

School Grounds. — Young gardeners may do much to make 
school grounds attractive. Of course, a playground is needed, 
and it should not be encumbered with shrubs and flower beds. 
But the schoolhouse may be shaded with trees, bare corners may 
be beautified with shrubs and flowers, and outbuildings may be 
screened with vines. Flowers should be planted in beds and 
borders, and trees and shrubs should be set in groups, with the 
larger ones at the back. Among desirable trees, shrubs, and 
vines are the elm, linden, oak, and maple, dogwood, lilac, and 
snowball, ivy, Virginia creeper, and morning-glory. 

Landscape Gardening, — Study attractive and unattractive 
grounds, and try to understand the reasons for the difference in 
appearance. " Two trees and six shrubs, a scrap of lawn, and 
a dozen plants may form either a beautiful little picture or a 
huddled disarray" of forms and colors. Landscape gardening is 
an art that makes pictures with grass and trees and other natural 
objects instead of with pencil and brush. If we wish to secure 
good results, we must have a plan, the simpler the better, and 
a picture in our minds of the result we wish to obtain. We must 
be sure to plant the right things in the right place and in the 
right way. 



APPENDIX 

MIXING FERTILIZERS 

All the ' machinery ' necessary is a tight floor or a smooth hard place on the 
ground, scales, a shovel or hoe, an iron rake, and a sand screen. Lumpy materials 
should be pulverized and run through the screen before they are added to tine ones. 
The most bulky material should be spread on the floor in a layer about six inches 
deep, then the next material should be spread on top of this, and so on till all are 
added in layers to the pile. The pile should then be shoveled and raked over from 
top to bottom so as to mix the materials well. This process should be repeated three 
or four times and then the mixture passed through the screen. It is then ready 
for use. 

Acid phosphate is the cheapest and one of the best sources of phosphoric acid. 
Various grades are sold, ranging from 7 to 18 per cent available phosphoric acid. 
The higher grades are the more economical. 

Nitrate of soda is 15! to 16 per cent nitrogen; sulphate of ammonia 19 to 20.} 
per cent; dried blood 12 to 14 per cent; tankage 5 to I2i per cent; and cotton- 
seed meal 6| to 7^ per cent. 

Nitrate substitutes may be made on the following basis : for one pound of nitrate 
of soda use one pound of high grade dried blood, or two pounds of cotton-seed meal. 

Muriate of potash, which is 50 per cent potash, is the cheapest form of potash for 
crops such as corn, peas, and cotton; but the salt in the muriate or in kainit, which 
is 12 or I2| per cent potash, injures the quality of some crops, such as tobacco and 
potatoes, f'or these it is better to use sulphate of potash, iS to 52 per cent potash, 
or hard-wood ashes, 2 to 8 per cent potash. Ashes should never be mixed with acid 
phosphate unless both are perfectly dry, and neither ashes nor lime should be mixed 
with stable manure. 

Potash substitutes may be made on the following basis : for each one pound of 
muriate of potash use one pound of high-grade sulphate of potash or four pounds of 
kainit or ten pounds of dry unleached hard-wood ashes. 

Fertilizer formulas should give the per cent of available phosphoric acid, nitrogen, 
and potash. Often instead of the per cent of nitrogen there is given the per cent of 
ammonia which is |4 nitrogen, and the per cent of sulphate of potash which is about 
50 per cent potash. The fertilizer which claims 8 per cent sulphate of potash is 
therefore equal to one which claims 4 per cent potash, and one which claims 4.5 per 
cent ammonia is equal to one claiming 3.8 nitrogen. 

305 



3o6 APPENDIX 



SOME FERTILIZER FORMULAS 

I. For Corn 

Acid phosphate, 14% ....... 950 lb. 

Cotton-seed meal . . ... . . . . 1000 lb. 

Muriate of potash ........ 50 lb. 

Apply so as to get 100 to 200 lb. of acid phosphate to the acre. 

II. For ConoN 

Acid phosphate, 14% ....... 12501b. ^ 

Dried blood, 13% nitrogen ...... 600 lb. 

Muriate of potash ........ 1501b. 

Apply so as to get 200 to 400 lb. of acid phosphate to the acre. 

III. For Tobacco 

Acid phosphate, 14% 1065 lb. 

High-grade dried blood, 13% nitrogen . .• . . 5001b. 

Nitrate of soda 1251b. 

Sulphate of potash, 50% potash ..... 310 lb. 

IV. For Legumes 

When seed is inoculated so that the legumes can collect their own nitrogen. 

Acid phosphate, 14% 1800 lb. 

Muriate of potash . . . . . . . . 200 lb. 

Apply so as to get 200 to 300 lb. of acid phosphate to the acre. On poor land 
legumes do better when a small amount of nitrogen is supplied by the fertilizer. 



FORMULAS FOR SPRAYING PREPARATIONS 
FUNGICIDES 
I. Copper Sulphate 

For wintering spores 

Copper sulphate ........ i lb. 

Water . . . . . . . . . • 15 g^l- 

For peaches and nectarines use 25 gallons of water. Use on tree trunks and 
branches before buds open. 



APPENDIX 



307 



II. BoRDF.Aix Mixture 
For blight, mold, rot, scab, and all other fungous diseases of plants in foliage. 
Copper sulphate . . . . . . . . 6 lb. 

Unslacked lime . . . . . . . -4 lb. 

Water .......... 50 gal. 

For peaches, plums, and cherries double the quantity of water. Dissolve the 
copper sulphate in hot water in an earthen or wooden vessel, and then dilute it to 
25 gallons. Slack the lime in a wooden vessel with boiling water, slowly and care- 
fully so as to form a smooth paste. Dilute it to 25 gallons. When cool, mix with the 
copper-sulphate solution, stirring thoroughly. 

III. Ammoniacal Copper Cari!on.\te 

For fungous diseases of ripening fruit 
Copper carbonate . . . , . . . .5 oz. 

Ammonia, 26% . . . . . . . . 3 pt. 

Water 50 gal. 

This mixture does not stain nor roughen ripening fruit. Make the copper carbon- 
ate into a paste with li pints of water. Dilute the ammonia with i^ gallons of water 
and dissolve the paste in it. This stock solution can be kept in glass-stoppered bottles 
and diluted as wanted, by adding 6 gallons of water to each quart of the solution. 

IV. FORMAMN 

For smut and scab 

Formalin . , . . . . , . . 'i pt. 

Water for scab ........ 30 gal. 

Water for smut ........ 50 gal. 

Mix and moisten thoroughly the grain and potatoes to be used for seed, just be- 
fore planting. Put the potatoes in a bag and soak for two hours in the preparation. 
Grain should be soaked twenty minutes and then spread- so as to dry without heating. 

INSECTICIDES 
I. Paris Grkkx 
For chewing insects on plants, such as codling-moth larva:, potato beetles, etc. 

Paris green ........ i lb. 

Water 150 to 300 gal. 

For use on trees in foliage, especially fruit trees, add i lb. of unslacked lime. 
Paris green is a poison, and should be used with care. It should be mixed 
to a thin paste with water, diluted to the required amount, and kept well stirred. 

A dry, preparation is made by mixing one pound of Paris green with from 20 to 
50 lb. of flour gypsum, or air-slacked limj. This should be mixed thoroughly and 
dusted on plants, preferably while they are wet with rain or dew. 



308 APPENDIX 



II. Kerosene Emulsion 

For sucking insects, such as aphides, or plant lice. 

Hard soap . . . . . . . . . ^ lb. 

Boiling water ......... i gal. 

Kerosene ......... 2 gal. 

Dissolve the soap in the boiling water. Add the kerosene and churn with a 
pump from five to ten minutes. Dilute with from 8 to 50 gallons of water, using 
the strong solution for scale insects. 

III. Bisulphide of Carbon 

For grain moths, weevils, and all insects affecting stored food and seed. 

One teaspoonful to each cubic foot of space. 
Pour into a saucer or shallow pan and set on the top of the grain in a tightly closed 
bin. The bisulphide is very inflammable, and should be kept from light and fire. 

IV. Cobalt Sirup 
For poisoning tobacco flies and other flies and moths. 

Cobalt I oz. 

Molasses . . . . . . . . . . | pt. 

Water i pt. 

Insert in the blossom of the Jamestown weed by means of a quill. 

FUNGICIDES AND INSECTICIDES 

I. Bordeaux Paris Green 

Bordeaux mixture ........ 50 gal. 

Paris green . . . . . . . . . 4 oz. 

II. Lime, Salt, Sulphur Wash 
For winter application for San Jose scale 

Lime 15 lb. 

Sulphur 15 lb. 

Salt 5 lb. 

Water 5° gal. 

Heat 4 or 5 gallons of water in a twenty-gallon iron kettle. Put in 15 lb. of lime; 
while it is slacking, add 15 lb. of sulphur and add boiling water to make a thick 
paste. Add more water so as to make about 10 or 15 gallons. Keep the mixture 
well stirred, and boil thirty or forty minutes. Strain, add the salt, and dilute to 
50 gallons. 



APPENDIX 



309 



AVERAGE DIGESTIBLE NUTRIENTS IN AMERICAN FEEDING STUFFS 



Feeding Stuffs 



Digestible Nutrients in 100 Pounds 



Protein 


Carbohydrates 


Fat 


II.O 


39-6 


1.2 


1-7 


324 


0.7 


10.8 


38.6 


I.I 


6.8 


35-8 


1-7 


2.8 


43-4 


1.4 


3-6 


4-9 


3-7 


31 


4-7 


0.8 


3-9 


4.0 


I.I 


8.7 


65.6 


1.6 


7-9 


66.7 


4-3 


7.8 


57-1 


2.7 


4.8 


72.2 


0.3 


9.9 


67.6 


I.I 


10.2 


69.2 


1-7 


12.5 


30.0 


17-3 


37-2 


16. q 


12.2 


0.3 


3i-i 


1-7 


18.3 


54-2 


I.I 



Alfalfa hay .... 
Corn stover, field cured 
Cowpea hay .... 
Red clover hay . 
Timothy hay 
Cow's milk .... 
Skimmed milk . 
Buttermilk .... 

Barley 

Corn 

Kafir corn .... 

Rice 

Rye 

Wheat 

Cotton seed .... 
Cotton seed meal . 
Cotton seed hulls . 
Cowpeas 



FEEDING STANDARDS 
Pounds, per day, per 1000 lb. live weight. 



Kind of Animal 



Horse, at light work 
Horse, at hard work 
Oxen, at rest . 
Oxen, at hard work . 
Fattening oxen 
Milch cows 

Wool-producing sheep 
Fattening sheep . 
Fattening swine . 



Age, months 
2- 3 • 

3-6 . 

6-12 . 

12-18 . 

18-24 • 



Growing Cattle 

Average weight, per head 

150 lb. 

300 lb. 

500 lb. 

700 lb. 

850 lb. . . 



Protein 



1-5 
2.8 
0.7 
2.4 
3-0 
2-5 
1.2 

3-5 
4.0 



4.0 
3-2 
2.5 
2.0 
1.6 



Carbo- 
hydrates 



9-5 
13-4 

8.0 
13.2 
14.8 
12.5 
10.3 
14.4 
24.0 



13-8 
'3-5 
135 
13.0 
12.0 



Fats 



0.40 
0.80 
0.15 
0.50 
0.70 
0.40 
0.20 
0.60 



2.0 
I.O 

0.6 
0.4 
0.3 



Nutritive 
Ratio 



7.0 

5-5 
12.0 

6.0 

5-5 
5-4 
9.0 

4-5 
6.0 



4-7 
5.0 
6.0 
7.0 
8.0 



3IO 



APPENDIX 



LIST OF FARMERS' BULLETINS 

FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

The following Farmers' Bulletins, issued by the Department of Agriculture, con- 
tain practical, scientific information on the subjects treated in this book. (Jopies are 
sent free on application to a Senator or Representative in Congress or to the Secre- 
tary of Agriculture. 

Write to your State Agricultural Experiment Station also for copies of its bul- 
letins. These bulletins furnish excellent material for supplementary reading and 
study along desired lines. J]y their use work can be adapted to different grades 
and to special local conditions. 



Chapter I 
88. Alkali Lands. 

Chapter II 

III. Farmers' Interest in Good Seed. 
2oO. Seed of Red Clover and Its Im- 
purities. 
157. The Propagation of Plants. 

Chapter III 

245; Renovation of Worn-out Soils. 
257. Soil Fertility. 
150. Clearing New Land. 
187. Drainage of Farm Lands. 
46. Irrigation in Humid Climates. 
138. Irrigation in Field and Garden. 
263. Practical Information for Be- 
ginners in Irrigation. 
266. Management of Soils to con- 
serve Moisture. 

Chapter IV 

62. Marketing Farm Produce. 
•242. An Example of Model Farming. 
272. A Successful Hog and Seed- 
corn Farm. 



66. 
102. 

147. 

215. 

81. 

199. 

229. 



48. 
217. 

274. 

60. 

82. 

83. 

52. 
154. 

161. 

181. 

208. 



Meadows and Pastures. 

Southern Forage Plants. 

Winter Forage Crops for the 
South. 

Alfalfa Growing. 

Corn Culture in the South. 

Corn Growing. 

The Production of Good Seed 
Corn. 

Rice Culture in the United 
States. 

The Manuring of Cotton. 

Essential Steps in securing an 
Early Crop of Cotton. 

Flax Culture. 

Methods of Curing Tobacco. 

The Culture of Tobacco. 

Tobacco Soils. 

The Sugar Beet. 

The Home Fruit Garden : Prep- 
aration and Care. 

Practical Suggestions for Fruit 
Growers. 

Pruning. 

Varieties of Fruits recom- 
mended for Planting. 

The Apple and How to grow 
It. 



APPENDIX 



311 



255 The Home Vegetable Garden. 

35. Potato Culture. 

39. Onion Culture. 

129. Sweet Potatoes. 

220. Tomatoes. 

156. The Home Vineyard. 

198. Strawberries. 

213. Raspberries. 

195. Annual Flowering Plants. 

Chapter V 

28. Weeds: And How to Kill 

Them. 
86. Thirty Poisonous Plants. 
188. Weeds used in Medicine. 
146. Insecticides and Fungicides. 
243. Fungicides and their Use in 
Preventing Diseases of Fruits. 
127. Important Insecticides. 
155. How Insects affect Health in 

Rural Districts. 
47. Insects Affecting the Cotton 

Plant. 
70. Insect Enemies of the Grape. 
99. Insect Enemies of Shade Trees. 
120. Insects Affecting Tobacco. 
132. Insect Enemies of Growing 

Wheat. 
216. The Control of the Boll Weevil. 
223. Miscellaneous Cotton Insects 

in Texas. 
247. The Control of the Codling 

Moth and Apple Scab. 
275. The Gypsy Moth and How to 
control It. 

Chapter VI 

22. The F"eeding of Farm Animals. 
32. Silos and Silage. 



42. Facts about Milk. 

55. The Dairy Herd. 

63. Care of Milk on the Farm. 

71. Essentials in Beef Production. 

72. Cattle Ranges of the Southwest. 
106. Breeds of Dairy Cattle. 

143. The Conformation of Beef and 

Dairy Cattle. 

151. Dairying in the South. 

241. Butter Making on the Farm. 

25S. Texas or Tick Fever and its 

Prevention. 

261. The Cattle Tick. 

170. Principles of Horse Feeding. 

179. Horseshoeing. 

49. Sheep Feeding. 

96. Raising Sheep for Mutton. 

137. The Angora Goat. 

24. Hog Cholera and Sv\ ine Plague. 

100. Hog Raising in the South. 

41. Fowls: Care and Feeding. 

5 1 . Standard Varieties of Chickens. 

64. Ducks and Geese. 

141. Poultry Raising on the Farm. 

200. Turkeys. 

236. Incubation and Incubators. 

59. Beekeeping. 

CHAinER VII 

134. Tree Planting in Rural School 

Grounds. 

173. Primer of Forestry. 

228. Forest Planting and Farm 

Management. 

95. Good Roads for Farmers. 

136. Earth Roads. 

185. Beautifying the Home Grounds. 

218. The School CJarden. 



312 



APPENDIX 



STATE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS 



Alabama — College Station: Auburn. 

Canebrake Station : Uniotttoivn. 

Tuskegee Station : Tuskegee. 
Arizona — Tucson. 
Arkansas — FayetUville. 
California — Berkeley. 
Colorado — Fort Collins. 
Connecticut — State Station :' A^ew 
Haven. 

Storrs Station : Siorrs. 
Delaw are — Newark. 
Florida — Lake City. 
Georgia — Experiment. 
Idaho — Moscoiv. 
Illinois — Urbana. 
Indiana — Lafayette. 
Iowa — Antes. 
Kansas — Alanhattan. 
Kentucky — Lexington. 
Louisiana — Sugar Station : New 
Orleans. 

State Station : Baton Rouge. 

North Station : Calhouti. 
Maine — Orono. 
Maryland — College Park. 
Massachusetts — Amherst. 
Michigan — Agricultural College. 
Minnesota — St. Anthony Park, St. 

Paul. 
Mississippi — Agricultural College. 



Missouri — College Station : Columbia. 

Fruit Station : Mountain Grove. 
Montana — Bozematt. 
Nebraska — Lincoln. 
Nevada — Reno. 
New Hampshire — Durham. 
New Jersey — State Station: A^ew 
Brunswick. 

College Station : New Brnns-vick. 
New Mexico — ALesilla Park. 
New York — State Station : Geneva. 

Cornell Station : Lthaca. 
North Carolina — Raleigh. 
North Dakota — Agricultural College. 
Ohio — Wooster. 
Oklahoma — Stilhvater. 
Oregon — Corvallis. 
Pennsylvania — State College. 
Rhode Island — Kingston. 
South Carolina — Clemson College. 
South Dakota — Brookings. 
Tennessee — Knoxville. 
Texas — College Station. 
Utah — Logan. 
Vermont — Burlington. 
Virginia — Blacksburg. 
Washington — Pullman. 
West Virginia — Morgantown. 
Wisconsin — Madison. 
Wyoming — Laramie. 



INDEX 



[A word-list with definitions is not considered necessary for this book. The 
pronunciation and definition of unusual and technical words are given in the text 
when first used; when it is desired to refer to any of these, they may be found by 
means of the index.] 



acid phosphate . 
air in soil .... 
alcohol, commercial 

alfalfa io8, 120, 136, 

alkali lands 20, 85 

alluvial soil 14 

aluminium 30 

ambrosia artemisiae folia 
animals, domestic 

breeds of 

care of 

feeding 

annuals 44, 186, 

antennae 

anther 

apple 

Arbor Day 

arid region 

soil 

ashes 118, 133 

asparagus 

atmosphere 



305 

23, 27, 70, 87, 93 

141 

138 
86 
16 

, 31 
194 

235 
237 
236 

243 
194 
209 

43 
167 
286 

90 

92 
305 
180 

10 



Babcock milk -tester 250 

bacteria, 31, 41, 55, 83, 87, no. 200, 249, 

251 

balanced ration 242, 243 

Baltimore oriole 227 

barley 151, 299 

beans 70, 138, 180 

bee 221, 274 

breeds 274 

hives 276 

beef breeds 247 

beekeeping 275 



beetle 

Colorado potato 

ground 

ladybird 

tiger 

Bermuda grass 134, 

biennials 44, 47, 195, 

birds 

food of 

harmful 

useful 

blackberry 

blackbird, red-winged .... 

blight 199, 200, 

bluebird 

bluegrass 56, 

bluestone 

bobolink 

Bordeaux mixture .... 207, 

botanical names 

breeders, plant 

breeding wheat 

breeds 

of bees 

of cattle 

of goats 

of hens 268, 

of hogs 264, 

of horses 255, 

of sheep 

brooder 

budding 60, 169, 

bud reproduction 

bug, chinch 216, 218, 

bulb 50, 178, 



214 
214 



135 
196 
224 
224 
229 
225 
182 
228 
205 
227 

134 
206 
228 

307 
194 

74 
150 
237 
274 

245 
262 

273 
267 
256 
260 

274 
170 
58 
219 
187 



313 



314 



INDEX 



Burbank, Luther 75, 185 

bush fruits 182 

business methods 131 

butter 250 

breeds 247 

making 250 

butterfly 210 

by-products 117, 133 

cabbage 49, 180 

calcium 30, 32, 119 

California poppy 185 

calyx 42 

cambium 41, 48 

capillarity 23, 24, 38 

capillary attraction 23 

carbohydrates . 238, 240, 241, 242, 244 

carbon 31, 40, 54 

dioxide 27, 31, 39 

carbonaceous foods .... 240, 243 

carrot, wild 196 

catbird 228 

caterpillar 211 

cattle 245 

beef breeds 247 

care of . . -. 250 

dairy breeds 247 

food 250 

general-purpose breeds . . 248 

'scrub' breeds 248 

celery 179 

cells 41, 200 

cereals 48, 140 

checkrein 257 

cherry 168 

chickadee 227 

China . . ■ 193 

chinch bug 216, 218, 219 

chlorine 30, 32 

chlorophyl . . 39, 40, 45, 49, 50, 199 

cholera, chicken 272 

hog 266 

chrysanthemum leucanthemum . 197 

churning 250 

citrange 168 

citrus family 167 

clay, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 27, 56, 84, 87 

climate 28, 129 

clover . . . 105, 107, 108, 110, 137 
crimson . . . 103, iii, 136, 137 



clover, red 136, 138 

codling moth 211, 223 

Colorado potato beetle . . . . 214 
commercial fertilizers; see fertilizers 

composting manure 114 

copper sulphate .... 206, 306 
corn .... 48,50,66,71,135,140 

cultivation of 142 

fertilizing 143 

forage 141, 142 

seed selection 145 

sweet 180 

corolla 42 

cotton 35, 44, 50, loi, 153 

as one crop loi 

in rotation 102 

range and cultivation . . . 154 

sea island 156 

seed selection 157 

upland 156 

uses of 153 

weevil 157 

wilt 157 

cover crop 106, 108 

cow; see cattle 

cowpeas . . 66, 102, 105, 108, 136, 137 

cream 249 

crop plants, families of . . 126, 127 

raising 127 

rotation 100, 116, 144, 149, 156, 163, 

177. 193. 219 

examples of . . . . . 107 

principles of 104 

crops, green 108 

cross 74 

crow 229 

cuckoo 225 

cultivation, purposes of ... . 97 

deep and shallow .... 98 

effects of 74 

flat and ridge 98 

time of 98 

see corn, cotton, tillage, tobacco, 
wheat 

cultural methods 218 

curculio 220 

cuttings 59 

dormant 59 

green 60 

cutworms 212, 219 



INDEX 



315 



dairy breeds 247 

products 248 

daisy 197 

damsel fly 222 

daucus carota 196 

Department of Agriculture . . . 299 

publications of 300 

ditches 88 

hillside 89 

docking 258 

dormant cuttings 59 

draft horses 254, 255 

dragon fly 222, 223 

drain.lge 25, 86, 90 

benefits of 87 

methods of 87 

drains 88 

drift soil 14, 16 

drone 275 

ducks 269 

egg breeds 268 

elements . 29, 32, 37, 39, 54, 55, 56, 115 
available forms for plants, 31, 115 

compound 31 

forms unavailable for plants . 56 

metallic, of soil 30 

necessary to plants .... 54 

non-metallic, of soil .... 30 

evaporation 24, 25, 94, 98 

families of crop plants . . . .126,127 

farm tools 287 

care of 292 

profits from use of ... . 289 

fats 238, 240 

feeding standards .... 242, 309 

stock, rules for 243 

feeds 241 

nutrients in 309 

fermentation 114 

fertility 16, 81 

fertilization, j)lant 43 

fertilizers 115 

analysis of 121 

cost of 121 

mixing 120, 305 

rules for use 116 

testing 120 

fiber materials 153 



filament ,43 

fire blight 200 

fla.x 157 

flower, parts of 42 

annual 186 

garden 184 

perennial 187 

perfect and imperfect ... 50 

fly, damsel 222 

dragon 222, 223 

ichneumon 222, 223 

tachina 222 

food assimilaticm 238 

kinds of 241 

plant; see plant food 

uses of 238 

foot rot 261 

forage 133, 140, 141, 241 

crops 83, 133 

uses of 133 

forest, benefits of 280 

enemies of < 282 

forestry 284 

forests, national 281 

formalin 204, 208, 307 

fowls, care of 273 

diseases of 272 

fruit trees ; see budding, grafting, orchard 

fungi . . . . 12, 199, 200, 205, 206 

how to destroy . . . 205, 206 

fungicides 206 

fungous diseases .... 198, 207 

how to prevent 205 

fungus 199, 201 

garden, flower 184 

school 301 

vegetable 176 

geese 270 

germ 36 

food 36, 53 

girdling 48 

glacier 14 

goats 262 

breeds of 262 

food of 263 

grade stock 237 

grafting 60, 169, 170 

wax 169 

grain 140 



3i6 



INDEX 



grapes 102 

grass, Bermuda 134, 135 

blue 56, 134 

family 126, 127 

grasses 134 

gravity 23 

guano 116 

guinea fowls 270 

hand pollination 51, 150 

harrow 97 

hay . 133, 134 

curing 139 

heating . . . 114 

hens 268 

egg breeds of 268 

general-purpose breeds of . . 269 

meat breeds of 269 

herbs 180 

heredity 73j 74 

hogs 264 

American breeds of ... . 264 

diseases of 266 

English breeds of .... 264 

feeding 265 

horses 254 

care~of 256 

docking 258 

draft 254, 255 

feeding 256 

light or roadsters .... 254, 255 

shoeing 257 

host 200, 201, 205 

hotbed 112, 184 

humus . 18, 56, 82, 83, 84, loi, 108 

hurdle 266, 267 

hybrid 74 

hybridizing 74 

hydrogen 30,31,39,54 

ichneumon fly 222, 223 

imago . • 209, 210 

incubator 274 

inoculation against tick fever . . 253 

of soil no 

insecticides 219 

insects, chewing 219 

cultural methods against . . 218 
enemies ..... 106, 208, 221 
friends 221 



insects, injuries from 208 

life, stages of 209, 210 

parts of 209 

pollination by 51, 221 

sucking 220 

iron 30, 32, 39 

irrigation 25, 90 

kainit 118,121,305 

kerosene emulsion 308 

King road system 297 

labor : .129, 130 

ladybird beetles 222 

landscape gardening 304 

larva 209 

larvae 210 

layering 58 

leaf 39, 40, 49 

legumes 55, 83, 1015, 108, 117, 128, 136, 

i8d 

lemon 168 

lime 83, 119, 120 

limestone soil 19, 56 

loam 19, 57, 85 

loco weed 197 

lumbering 280, 284 

machinery 291 

see tools 

magnesium 30 

manures 105 

green 108 

stable 112 

market 129 

crops 104, 129 

gardening 177 

meat breeds 269 

melon family 180 

Mexican cotton boll weevil . . . 215 

milk 249, 251 

milk vessels, care of 251 

moisture requirements of crops . 129 

molt 210 

moth 211 

codling 211 

mulch 64 

soil ... 25, 27, 92, 93, 97, 98 

mules 256 

muriate of potash . . . 118,121,305 



INDEX 



317 



nitrates 55, 83, 117, 305 

nitrogen 30, 31, 32, 39, 55, 83, 105, no, 
114, 115, 117, 122 

pure culture of in 

nitrogen-gathering crops . . .105, no 

nutrients 309 

nutritive ratio 251, 270 

nymphs 210 

oats 71, 151 

okra 180 

one-crop system 100, loi 

onion 178, 179 

orange 168 

orchard 166 

cuhivation 172 

fertiHzing 173 

location 170 

pruning 174 

selection of varieties for . . 171 

spraying . 173 

thinning fruit in 174 

oriole, Baltimore 227 

osmosis 38 

outbuildings 292 

ovary 43 

ovules 43 

oxygen . . .25, 27, 30, 31, 39, 40, 54 

Paris green 214, 307 

pasture grasses 134 

pasturing cattle 244 

peach 167, 170 

peafowls 270 

peanuts 138 

pear 167, 170 

peas no 

Canada field 138 

cow . 66, 102, 105, 108, 136, 137 

percolation 24 

perennials 44, 187, ig6 

perfect flowers 50 

petal : . . 42 

phosphoric acid 83, 115, 118, 122, 305 

phosphorus 30, 32, 83 

pistil 43, 5° 

plant breeding 74 

diseases 199 

families 126, 127 



plant food 30, 31, 32, 37, 39, 40, 54, 83, 

air-derived 39, 54 

necessary elements of . . . 54 
soil-derived .... 37, 55 

plant improvement 73, 73 

methods of 74 

reproduction from buds . 58 
reproduction from seeds . 65 

planting, depth of 70 

soil, conditions for .... 70 

time of 71 

plants, girdling 48 

parts of 46 

strong-feeding 48 

weak-feeding 48 

plow 94, 287 

pan 96 

plowing 94, 219 

conditions of soil for ... 95 

depth of 89, 90, 95 

for drainage 88 

subsoil 96 

time of 94 

plum 168 

plumcot 75 

poisons, fungicides 206, 306 

insecticides 219, 307 

pollen 43, 74, 146 

pollen bearing 50 

by hand 51, 150 

by insects . . . . 51, 221, 275 

by wind 50 

pollination 51, 150 

ponies 256 

potash . . . .83, 118, 122, 173, 305 

potassium 30, 32, 83 

potato, sweet. . 63, 65, 160, 177, 178 
white 60, 127, 160, 177, 178 

poultry 268 

care of 271, 272, 273 

diseases 272 

food 270 

products 268 

primus berry 75 

protein .... 238, 240, 241, 242, 243 

protoplasm 41, 200 

pruning 174 

publications of Department of 

Agriculture 300 



3i8 



INDEX 



publication? of State Agricultural 

Experiment Stations . . 300 

pupa 209, 210, 212, 216 

pure bred 237 

purity of seeds 67 

quartz 17 

queen bee 275 

ragweed 194 

rape 136 

raspberry 181 

ration 242 

balanced . . 242, 243, 244, 245 

unbalanced 243, 245 

rice 26, 151 

ricebird 228 

roads 293 

bad 293 

care of 298 

drainage 296 

grade 294 

surface 296 

robin 228 

roller 97 

root crops 107, 177 

root hairs 37, 38, 204 

rootlets 37 

roots, 37, 38, 46, 49, 62, 63, 64, 87, 93 

fibrous 47, 56, 105 

tap _ 37, 46, 105 

rose family 126, 128 

roses 187 

rot 202 

rotation of crops; see crop rotation 

rust 201 

rye 151 

salt 118, 305 

sand 17, 18 

San Jose scale 217 

sandy soil 19, 23, 27, 56, 84, 87, 106, 112 

sap 38, 39, 40 

scab 262 

scale, San Jose ....... 217 

school garden 301 

grounds 304 

house 304 

science, its help to farmers . . . 298 
scion 169 



'scrub' cattle 248 

hog 267 

season for planting 71, 130 

sedentary soil 12, 16 

seed 35,36,43, 65 

cleaning 67 

home-grown 69 

impure 69 

planting 70 

plots 68 

purchasing 68 

purity -67 

selection . 74, 75, 144, 150, 157,163 

in field 66 

sowing 52, 192 

testing 70, 71 

vitality 67 

seedlings 65, 168, 169 

selection ' 74 

see seed 

sepal 42 

sheep 258 

care of 258, 261 

diseases of 261 

mutton breeds 260 

wool breeds 200 

silage 133, 24.1 

silicon .20 

silo 133, 293 

small fruits 181 

smut 202 

sodium 30 

soil 9, 129, 160 

classes of 12 

composition of 29 

deepening 96 

drainage 25, 86, 96 

fertile 31, 82 

ferruizing 11^ 

formation of 9 

ideal 82 

improvement 81 

inoculation no 

irrigation 25, 90 

manuring 112 

moisture 22 

mulch . . 25, 27, 92, 93, 97, 98 

sterile 31 

swamp 20, 85 

temperature 28 



INDEX 



319 



soil, texture 18, 56, 83 

tillage 93 

ventilation 27 

water 23 

soiling crops 133 

system 244 

sorghum 135, 165 

soy bean 107, 138 

sparrow, English . . . . . . 229 

sparrows 226 

spiracle 209, 220 

spores 200, 202, 205, 206 

spraying 173, 206, 220 

formulas 306 

stable manure 112 

benefits of 112 

composting 114 

sources of loss 113 

value of 112 

stamen 43, 50 

State Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
tions 299 

stems, prostrate 48 

, upright 48 

stigma 43 

stock 169 

stock raising 235 

profits in 236 

strawberry 50, 182 

style 43 

subsoil 9, 82, 87, 92, 96 

subsoiling 96 

sugar beets 165 

cane 164 

producing plants ..... 164 

sulphate of potash 118, 305 

sulphur 30 

sulphuric acid 118 

surplus products 177 

swarm 276 

tachina fly 222 

taproots 37, 46, 105 

terraces 89 

tester, seed 7o> 71 

thorax 209 

thoroughbred horse 253 

tick or Texas fever 252 

tile drains 88 

tillage 93, 193 



tillage, benefits of 93 

see cultivation 

tobacco 65, 69, 104, 160 

cultivation of ...'.. . 161 

fertilizing 163 

range of 160 

seed selection 163 

tomato i-jg 

tools 287 

care of 292 

profits from use of ... . 289 

transpiration 24 

transplanting .... 62, 169, 172 

rules for 63, 172 

transported soil .12 

trap crop 219 

tree planting 285 

products 280 

trees 279 

benefits of 280 

see forests 

truck farming 177 

tubercle 55, no 

tuberculosis 251 

turkeys 269 

variation 73 

vegetable garden 176 

cultivation of 176 

location of 176 

value of 176 

ventilation of soil 27 

vitality 67 

water as soil maker 10 

transporter 13 

table 23 

uses of 22, 40 

weeds 94, 106, 191 

annual 194 

biennial 195 

foreign 193 

harm done by 191 

how to destroy ... 192, 19.. 

native 19^ 

perennial igfi 

seed, sowing of 192 

weevil 106 

Mexican cotton boll . . . 215 

wheat 71. IC7, 13c, 146 



320 



INDEX 



wheat breeding 150 

cultivation of 147 

fertilizing 148 

seed selection 150 

varieties 149 

wild carrot 196 

wilt . 106, 204, 205 



wind as soil transporter .... 13 

window garden 302 

wood ashes 118, 133, 305 

woodpeckers 226 

worker bees 275 

wren . . . . i 227 



JAi^ 8 BJl 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



oDDESfibmm 



